Parade

Natalie marched with her Girl Scout Daisy troop in the Walnut Festival Twilight Parade last weekend.  It's a little ironic that we live in Walnut Creek, a town that honors the walnut with a week long festival, and our girl is deathly allergic to the celebrated nut.  But she marched with a smile anyway.  Corey was home recovering from a major deadline that's left him weekend-less since mid May so I took Audrey with me.  I thought we'd watch from the sidelines and slowly follow the parade down to the end.  Well, the troop leader asked if I'd walk behind the marching Daisies to be an extra set of eyes.  I agreed even though I knew it would be a challenge to keep Audrey happy in the stroller the length of the parade. 

I was right.  The parade was 45 minutes late starting so I had used up all my Audrey bribes before it even began.  By the time we started moving forward down Main St. she'd had a sucker, a snack pack of goldfish and a mint.  She was in full force and wanted out of the stroller...and basically screamed at the top of her lungs until I released her.  During the parade, she proceeded to run circles around the stroller, in the wrong direction toward the marching band behind us and at full speed into the cheering cheerleaders ahead of us.  We were more of a spectacle than the spectators I'd planned on being.  But she kept the crowd laughing.  The only one not laughing, actually, was me.

When Corey picked us up at Target at the end of the parade, I was frazzled beyond belief.  Natalie was glowing...not just from the pride of completing her first parade but from the glow-in-the-dark liquid inside her glow stick bracelet that had exploded all over her after Audrey bent it and cracked it open.  Oh, mercy.  What a night.  But our Daisy had fun.  And thank goodness no little Daisies wandered from the flock because I was of no help as an extra set of eyes!