More Festival

It started out as a dreary gloomy Saturday. Complete with clouds and drizzling rain. We planned to take Lilly to the Fall Festival which includes a parade, a small carnival and some local merchant tents and displays. The weather made us question our resolve, but we decided to risk it when it looked like the rain would not last.
We headed downtown Z-ville, found seats on the curb and settled in for the longest and most boring parade ever. Evidently you don't have to have a float or even a reason to be in the parade...just an overwhelming desire to show yourself off. Now, don't get me wrong there were floats that were well designed and deserved to be in the parade and there were fire trucks, police cars and Lilly's favorite part, marching bands and princesses. But, quite a few entries were just local people who are proud of their car, their job, or their new hair cut...I don't know.
But anyway, Lilly enjoyed it and we didn't stay for the whole thing. Here's Lilly and Bryan patiently waiting for the parade to begin.
Lilly in her bag chair. Bryan carried it all the way from our distant parking spot only to realize that Lilly could sit in the stroller if she so desired and that she was only going to sit for amount of time that it took me to take this picture.

When McGriff the crime dog came by waving and passing out candy Lilly panicked and ended up in my lap. This happened several times during the parade whenever a mascot made an appearance. She is just like her aunt Kristy in this regard.

And of course...Lilly rode a pony. If there is a pony ride within a hundred miles Lilly will find it and talk of nothing else until she's had a turn. Sadly, all she talked about while riding the pony was the playground.

Around this time Lilly and I headed home for a rest while Bryan pressed the flesh with the public at Key Bank's booth. We came back rested and ready to party a few hours later as Bryan's shift was coming to an end. We hurried to get back to the Key Bank booth in time to get Lilly a Tinkerbell spray on tattoo, but Lilly wanted no part of it. She seemed afraid as if it would hurt like a real tattoo. Hope she keeps that attitude throughout her teen years.

After that we headed to the midway to see if there was anything that Lilly could ride. There wasn't, but after Daddy forked over three dollars to a young girl with black and purple hair and many of the previously mentioned real tattoos, Lilly was aloud to 'pick till you win' at duck pond in the carnival. She chose as her prize this purple ball. Then insisted on riding on Bryan's shoulders and holding the ball. It was only then that Bryan discovered that the ball was wet.

The highlight for all of us was the area that was dedicated to inflatable playscapes. There were six of them. Ten dollars for an all day wrist band or two dollars for a single ticket. I talked Bryan into springing for the ten dollar wrist band when I pointed out our friend standing nearby with his four kids. Bryan easily shelled out the ten bucks when he realized how happy he was that he wasn't being asked for 40. Lilly had a blast for well over an hour, going from bouncy house to bounce house. Some were just the old fashioned moon bounce, but there where three obstacle courses, and a slide too. Lilly was able to do all six things unaided, which meant that we had the luxury of standing idly by and watching. After a while Bryan suggested that we leave. "Why?" I asked. He looked around and couldn't come up with an answer so he tossed Lilly back into one of the obstacle courses and we resumed our idleness.

A note to Matthew...When we got out of the car and Lilly saw the giant inflatable slide she couldn't hold in her excitement. "Matthew will be here!?" she asked. Please note the Fourth of July blog.