It's all about the kids! They love it, and talk about it all year. We get them all decorated up, with the help of wonderful Kasey. The little boys were pretty excited about their patriotic hair.
We pulled into the parking lot at about 10:00. The weather was pretty roasty and toasty. Lots of bodies ran around busily trying to get things assembled.
We put together some pretty cute sparkler sticks that we stuck in the mast on the center of the trailer. The mast has been used on our float from the very first parade float we entered. It's our 'signature piece'.
Another thing that makes our float unique each year is the fact that we play music to go with our theme each year. This year we played "God Bless The USA".
Another unique, and probably the best part of our float each year, is that we all order coordinating t-shirts each year. We go through our friends, Mitch and Brenda, and they put together some pretty impressive shirts for us. This year we ordered 75 of them! We got a little more creative this year, and for the first time we ordered them in generational colors. The Grandparents wore white, the Parents wore blue, and the kids wore red.
As the adults were busy getting things ready and in place, the little ones filled their mouths with lots and lots of bubble gum.
We tried our best to stay cool.
My girls- minus 2 that were already in position. We had to take another one later to include us all!
Every year we use a Gator to lead the float, and we fill the entire back of it with water bottles. This is a hit in the parade, especially when the temp. is creeping up near 90!!!
This man is always such a great sport!
The 2 of us put in some time, and love every minute of it! It's all about the kids, and so worth it!
Here's our little Patriotic, sweaty, happy family!
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| And that, my friends, is what a 1st place float looks like!!! That's right- we earned back our title, and we are pretty excited about it!!!! |
5 comments:
Now that is how you celebrate the 4th. Glad you had a great time! :)
What a fun day!
Yay for first place! I don't envy you though, that heat, yikes!
What a party! It looks like so much fun! Love all the pictures.
Wow, looks great! I'm so glad you enjoyed your time at the lake. And I am SO disappointed that we never had the chance to meet up! We didn't end up getting in until Saturday afternoon, and then it was jam-packed lake goodness until we left Monday after lunch. UGH. My dad did cruise us around the lake and pointed to the vague area where he thought your place might be, so I waved like a crazy person to the whole section. :) Were you by chance part of the pontoon parade over the weekend? My mom thought she may have seen your family, so again, I waved like crazy (we were swimming at the time), but I couldn't confirm whether it really was you or not. :)
We definitely hope to go back soon, though, and hopefully it'll be less hectic (i.e. maybe NOT having all 20 of us there) so we can meet up.
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