Memorial Day Parade

The Boalsburg Memorial Day Parade (which actual takes place 2 day before Memorial Day) was last night, and as per our annual tradition, we were in attendance.  You must understand that our town is only 6.5 square miles in size and has a population of less than 4,000 people, so you can't really go with high expectations for the parade.  In fact we can't even afford full size horses for our parade:

Actually, the selling point for the parade and the reason why so many people attend is because ~90% of the parade entrants throw candy.  In terms of amount of candy received, this 30 minute parade ranks somewhere just below Halloween, but above Easter, and he doesn't have to move more than ~5 feet because people literally throw candy directly at him.  All he has to do is wait, bucket in hand:

Since it is a small parade, there isn't really much in the way of floats.....actually there are no floats at all. More like lots of fire trucks....

...and MORE fire trucks....

Other than the token politicians riding in the back of various models of sports care, the only other main contributor to the parade (other than the fire departments of the 25 nearest towns) are the local girls twirling classes, of which I didn't take any pictures, but there were at least 5 different twirler groups in the parade (3 of which were playing the same song while twirling.  Can't we at least have some originality?).  One of our friends made the comment after the parade, that "if an alien race were to come to earth and observe only this parade, the only logical conclusion that they would be able to come to is that small twirling girls must be the number one cause of fires on Earth".  I just hope that there isn't a fire anywhere in the surrounding 25 miles because for those 30 minutes on a Saturday evening in May, every available truck is cruising our little Main St. throwing handfuls of candy to waiting kids and would be hard pressed to get anywhere in a hurry.

Birthday Time!

Lucas turned three just over a week ago!  Since Lucas is obsessed with animals (side note: for those that have received cards from use recently, have you noticed they have animals on them?  Lucas has been picking out the cards!), particularly crocodiles, we decided to go with an animals theme for his birthday, go figure.  The night before, despite Craig's lack of enthusiasm, we decorated the kitchen area, with balloons, crate paper hanging from the ceiling and I have to admit a pretty cool animal themed Happy Birthday sign.  The next morning was french toast, with whipped cream (can't forget the cream), and strawberries.  Lucas almost didn't notice the decorations (too groggy), but once he spotted it he was thrilled,  he liked the toy animals (table decoration)!  Lunch was suppose to be outside since Lucas loves to be outside, but the weather didn't cooperate, so we headed to Chick-fil-A.  He loved playing in their play place (it is the nicest one in town)!  He was also allowed to get an ice cream cone, which he is usually pretty good about eating it, but it was hot and melted too quickly, so we are walking through Walmart (to quickly grab these cute animal plates that I had to have) with a dripping, falling apart ice-cream cone, Lucas holding onto a balloon, and me needing to make a run to the little girls room.  I couldn't help but laugh, I am sure it was an amusing sight to see!  That night we had Lucas' favorite food:  Pasta with broccoli!  Since I wasn't quite ready for a just friends party (maybe next year, when he is a little older), we had a bunch of his friends and their families over for cake and ice cream, Lucas picked rainbow chip cake and caramel ice-cream.  He had a crocodile cake and some animal themed cupcakes!  Lucas seemed to have a great time.

Just some notes, for posterity, about 3 year old Lucas:  He loves being outside, especially if his friends are there, and he loves grapes along with strawberries and blackberries.  He is a thinker and it gets him into mischief on a regular basis.  He is a good, but very active kid!!!  He is into animals, swords (don't ask me where this came from, but lately everything is a sword), and his most recent favorite color is pink (ugh!).

Boalsburg Celebration of Military Service

In anticipation of Memorial Day, the Pennsylvania Military Museum, which is located in our small town, hold an annual Celebration of Service.  There is a lot of pomp and circumstance, including military parades and various speakers, but the big draw for the kids is the military vehicles, including 5 helicopters, that are on display.  We have the privilege of nearly having our windows shatter when the helicopters fly directly over our townhouse at an altitude of no more than a couple hundred feet as they approach the museum lawn for landing.  Absolute worst is when the 2 Chinooks fly overhead.

Lucas had a great time (and I admit that I did, too) climbing in and out of the helicopters and armored vehicles.  Katie spent the time talking with friends (boring!) instead of examining the Apache Attack Helicopter machine gun (like me), or jumping up and hanging from the tail fins (like Lucas).  Thankfully nobody saw Lucas performing his acrobatics, or the fact that the piece he was hanging was clearly label "Not A Step:  Do Not Apply Force".

Dipping Chocolate Strawberries

This past Saturday Lucas and I dipped chocolate strawberries while we listened to Adele.  Though Lucas' idea of contribution is standing right next to me licking a spoon dipped in chocolate, then stealing another spoon covered in chocolate, and trying to continually dip the spoon in the chocolate.  Got to love it when the three year old wants to help!  However, he did look pretty stinking cute in his apron and hat, with his two spoons and mouth covered in chocolate.  It was necessary to document the moment.

A recent conversation with Lucas

The other morning we were taking Craig to work.  I was having a conversation with Craig, when Lucas pipes in and says, "Daddy stop talking to mommy.  I need to talk to mommy."  My reply is, "what do you need to tell me Lucas?".  Lucas reply:  "Mom what are you doing?"  Can you guess who thinks they are the center of my world?  Boy is someone in for a little shock come this September. :)

Did I really just see what I think I saw?

Last week I was visiting a friend (that lives across the street) we were chit-chatting at her kitchen table and during our conversation I just happen to look out her back sliding glass door, just in time to see what looked like a black bear running past the window.  I looked at my friend to see if she saw what I saw and she asked me "did you just see that?".  We ran to the door and sure enough there is a black bear running behind the row of apartments.  Who would have thought?  We do know of a family that has a black bear in their area, and one time found it wandering in their garage, but they live up by the hills.  We live in an apartment complex, the bear must have crossed at least one major road (4 lane hightway) to get to the apartment complex.  Not what I was expecting to see when I looked out the back door.

Library!

Pennsylvania has this program called, "one book, one child".  If you keep track of the books you read for the month of April and meet your goal, they give you the book that they are doing for the program.  Every year it is a different book, so it is a great way to get some free books.  This year the book was called, "Stop Snoring Bernard."  They also have a party where the author comes talks about the book and the library provides fun activities that are related to the book.  For the sake of complete honest ... there is also cake involved!  Lucas and I attended this event, last week.  Lucas loved it.  He is a big fan of animals so this was definitely his kind of book and party!  Plus he loves cake!  He even sat up front with the rest of the kids while the author (who was also the illustrator) gave his presentation.  Lucas interacted with the group and presenter, and just had a riot!  The author even signed his copy of the book.  At first Lucas was right up there ready to get his book signed, but the author moved so he could sit down and Lucas got shuffled and pushed out of the way in the process.  It didn't phase him, though, and he did not have a problem stepping up and getting his book signed.  We won't mention the part where he went to the bathroom to wash his hands, without telling me and I spent several panicked moments looking for him!