Parade Season

Otherwise known as "where we get candy" ~
Starting with Memorial Day in May, highlighted with a couple of 4rth parades in July and culminating with the grand and always creative Old Hallowell Day parade, our kids receive a bounty of artificial goodness which rivals Halloween.
This year we thought we'd try a new tactic to avoid the windfall...why not view the parade - from the end...*after* all of the sugared rain has fallen? Well, we tried this with the last two we attended and found the joke was on us - here is why...lots of those generous parade participants had been rationing their tootsie rolls, lollipops, smarties and other coveted candies. By the end of the route, they didn't want to be left with this bounty and heartily chucked it by the fistfulls straight into the happy hands of our 3 little ones...these kids couldn't have planned it better...
Of course, we could always opt not to go, but where would be the fun in that? We'd miss gnomes dancing to "Staying Alive", gals in full renaissance dress and the beloved bagpipe players - kilts and all. Also, we would miss moments we love amid the sugar harvest like watching our 4 year old walk over to her 'often reserved in candy collecting' older siser and, by her own volition, sweetly hand over some choice bits she had collected from the pavement. These images in themselves are worth braving the heat, sweat, traffic and inevitable sugar crash :)