neal family adventures: I waved, they should throw beads!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

I waved, they should throw beads!

The Greenville Avenue St. Pat's Day parade was very fun this year. Last Saturday, March 15 we headed for the street. Lea was loaded down with beads half way through the parade. She would wave her little wave and people flocked to her. Most floats had people walking the streets along side the float and many of them would come put the beads on her themselves. She was just too cute.
Lea did her Mardi Gras frequenting Mama proud with her bead acumen. I mean Look at all those beads!

A few times Lea was frightened by the noise, either the horn of an 18-wheeler or REALLY loud music on a float. She'd come hug me and cuddle up to me, but as another float would pass, while her head was buried in my shoulder, her little hand would poke out and wave so as not to miss any bead retrieving opportunity.

I'm waving

I'm still waving

Beads, beads and more beads

Here she is getting into wearing the beads. I love this photo, how she's holding on to Daddy's beads, like "they all must be mine"! Really Lea just liked how they sounded when she shook them together. She'd shake and shimmy to hear the beads rattle. And I think here, she is rattling Dan's beads.

Then as I said, half way through, so many beads they were pulling Lea's coat off. Look at all those beads. Seriously, I was beaming, so proud!

The Parade was good. Dan thought it was much bigger this year, than past years. There were a lot of fun floats. This was probably our favorite...

Happy St. Hillbilly Day

There were 2 marching bands. The Fireman's Bagpipe Band and this, an all Asian marching band. It seemed so odd to me. It was accompanied by people handing out pamphlets explaining a Tai Chi looking religion/martial art and atrocities commit by China. It was very odd.

Other notable moments in the parade were the Hari Krishnas who gave out bags with cookies. Dan was surprised when I gave the cookie to Lea, after all it was home-made and unwrapped, unlike all the candy we got. I said the whole point of Crhishna-ism is they don't hurt anything, even bugs. I said "Here you go, sweetie, enjoy your vegan cookie." She didn't take more than a bite. Oh well no kalachandji in her future either. Good Girl!

Then there was the bead giver who said to Becky (who joined us and we had a great time with her!) ... he said to Becky, as he handed her beads "Here you go, Ma'm." "I'm not a Ma'm," shouted Becky. "I got carded last week, I'll have you know."

Maybe one too many screwdrivers at the parade for Becky, tee hee. I'm kidding of course. You can never have to many vodka drinks at the parade, in fact Becky passed up a jello shot give off one of the floats. I took it in the spirit of the holiday.

And with 4 beer trucks bringing up the rear, the parade was over. Our little family headed off to eat cajun seafood with Becky. Here we are at the end. Dan took all of Lea's beads.

We made it back to our car. Its always such a joy when your car is still where you parked it after a parade. We had a very difficult time parking last year and this year was similar, but we ended up at the Million Dollar Saloon, parking for free. Thanks so much to the family friendly strip club! Dan was so happy he did a little dance as we left.

And here are some pics from before the parade...
We got to the parade area a bit early and enjoyed the sunny day. Lea picked some clovers (no 4 leaf clover for us that day). We found a lady bug and rolled around in the clover. So these photos are less related to the parade, but cute and St. Patrick's Day-ish! Lots of GREEN!!

Here Lea is sitting in clover waiting for the parade