From The Normans: A New Parade

On Sunday night the weather forecast for Memorial Day was 100% chance of rain, heavy at times, pretty much all day long. The big Kennett Square Memorial Day Parade we usually attend was cancelled. So we figured we'd be hanging out inside all day Monday, and not parading.

And then the ever-knowledgeable FaceBooks told me about a previously unheard of parade in Oxford. As well as where to park. And we woke up Monday morning to no rain, and completely updated forecast of NO RAIN, and even some sunshine. So we discussed some flexible thinking with Dexter, discussed how it's not healthy for your body to hold its pee for 15 hours straight to Erin, and then headed to Oxford.

This was a much shorter parade. Without the Boy Scouts handing out flags at the beginning. Without horses, or guns, or floats. But it had a couple marching bands, and some old cars, and more fire trucks than we anticipated. And also we were home before 11AM. So I do believe it was a success.

Here's a link to a super quick video that Google Photos so kindly made for me this morning.

Flag waving practice by the small one who is too big to want to nap, but still too little to NOT be grumpy when she skips her nap. She's pretty fun these days...

Daddy had to do a quick fix of Dexter's flag - it's been hanging out in the garage since last year and needed a little re-stapling.

Yay! Parade!

Parade Watch 2016

Erin wants YOU to have a Happy Memorial Day

Waving flags at cool classic cars

Love Erin's "What's coming next?" expression.

An impressively long line of fire trucks, considering they were all just from Oxford.

Aaaaand DONE! Parade over, quick walk back to our car, easy drive home. This is a parade I can support. We considered going to the West Grove parade on Saturday morning, but it started at 9 and Erin slept until 8:15. So we had no shot of making it there. Maybe next year.

Aunt Maria took the kids to Applebee's for lunch. Ms. Dianne, Dexter's MT, is coming here at 3:30. Maybe we'll do some swimming or some sprinkler running this afternoon. And that's pretty much it! Memorial Day 2016, done.

Aunt Maria has been here all weekend, so we've been having a fun time with her. On Saturday our little pool got set up and filled, and left to sit and warm up a bit before anyone decided to swim in it. Saturday afternoon the kids went to the DE Children's Museum - they had a "Be an Aerospace Engineer" program there, so Dex went and built a Mars lander, and then got to test it from the top of the huge climbing structure. He did an excellent job of building his, and had a successful landing. John has pictures, but hasn't shared them with me yet. So you're picture-less. Erin and Aunt Maria played and slided and touched fish and crabs and had a lovely time. And everyone ate ice cream. Saturday evening was kind of our only shot at roasting marshmallows, so John built a little fire in the fire pit and we had s'mores for dessert after a hot dog dinner. Erin was super brave and actually got within 20 feet or so of the fire. That girl. She REALLY dislikes fire. So she didn't have a s'more, but she had marshmallows and chocolate and crackers, all on their own.

Little Miss Chocolate Face

Dex still enjoys his marshmallows WHITE, but sticky. It's a fine balance.

Waaaaay back there is Erin. She wants to be sure she doesn't get too close.

On Sunday we did a lot of pool-ing. Our pool in the morning, which Aunt Maria said was still really cold. Erin lasted about 15 minutes, though, so it couldn't have been THAT cold. And then the YMCA pool in the afternoon, along with picnic dinner there, under the pavilion, while it rained. They finally asked us to leave so they could close the pool down early. I got a good glimpse at what my summer will entail - sitting in two inches of water at the baby pool, while Erin fills cups and buckets with water. Cuz she won't get it. Cuz it's "too cold." Dexter and Aunt Maria had a lovely time on the slide, and diving in the diving pool, and swimming in the lap pool. I have no photo evidence of this. Because I was sitting in two inches of water with Little Miss It's Too Cold.

Here's a Link to a quick video of Sunday morning in our pool.