Y'all Hush: Parade of Lights

Hey y'all -

Yesterday was the Missoula Parade of Lights celebration, with free activities for kids spread throughout downtown. There were 30 activities to choose from; my friend Julie, who I'm convinced missed her true calling in life as the Activities Director on a cruise ship, always attempts to do them ALL. I printed out the list and gave it to Laney with instructions to CIRCLE THREE.

Because I am a sucker - a sucker, I say - we ended up doing far more. Except for Hagen. At our very first stop, he said, "I think I'd rather just hang out at Finley's house instead of riding the carousel, making s'mores, stringing popcorn or meeting Santa." So he got in Finley's mom's car and that was the last we heard of him for the afternoon.

Laney and her friends plowed through one activity after another.

With the parade starting at 6pm, I thought it would be smart to take a break and go home for dinner. Somehow, we ended up with multiple friends and kids at our house for an impromptu dinner. Julie asked me, "Do you think we should order something, or do you have enough for all of us?" Well, I clutched my imaginary pearls because of course I had enough for all of them. And their mamas and their second cousins. Because you can take the girl out of the South, but not the South out of the girl, I keep zombie apocalypse-levels of food in our house for just this sort of occasion. No, I will NOT need to order take-out food...no, nor any of my kin.

^^ I just noticed that in the bottom-left corner of that picture, you can see a Thanksgiving turkey Hagen made in his class, which lists the things he's thankful for: Transformers, Mommy, Videos and Fun! When his teacher handed it to your dad, she smiled and said, "I'm sorry you're not on here." "Sure I am," said your dad. "I'm the fun!"

We went downtown for the Parade of Lights at 6p. I brought our wagon because it's always good for kid control. And also gives Hagen a controlled environment. Luckily, Julie's husband Jared was around to pull it.

While Child #1 stood on the side of the parade route and waited patiently for Santa...

Child #2 hung out in the wagon and wondered why we'd leave our heated house to stand on the side of the road.

There were all kinds of floats, including an appearance by the University of Montana mascot, Monty the Griz. I have probably already addressed my SEC snobbery on this blog, but allow me to say: Uga the bulldog from the University of Georgia would never appear in the back of some phone company plywood trailer.