Can't Rain on MY Parade

I LOVE the 4th of July.  It's the perfect holiday.  Right in the middle of summer, full of all things good... fireworks, parades, bbqs, popsicles...celebrating this incredible country we call home.  So I was a little bummed out this year for a couple of reasons.  First, the horrible drought in the area made it impossible to shoot off fireworks.  Then my neighborhood goes and cancels the parade for whatever reason.  What's a girl to do??  Well I wasn't going to risk the $1k fine to shoot off fireworks and possibly burn down my house.  But I figured I definitely couldn't go without a parade so why not have my own?  So...that's what I did.  I invited a few of our neighborhood pals over and instructed them to come decked out in the red, white and blue of course.  Being the super cool neighbors they are everyone brought breakfast, including mimosas.  We marked the starting line at my house and lined up for the first ever "Woods Edge 4th of July Parade". 

Normally I go a little crazy "decorating" my children for our neighborhood parade.  But this year since I was dealing with actually running my own parade I completely gave up control (a BIG deal for me) and let them do whatever they wanted to their parade vehicles of choice.  My mom even told me how proud she was of me for not totally taking over their decorating (seriously, that's major for me).  So for Celia it was her new Barbie car and of course for Kye it was a no brainer.  He is more than a little obsessed with tractors lately.  My little parade participants...

Since this was my first parade I thought I would start out a little small (for safety reasons).  Small for my neighborhood was 23 kids :)   So with 23 kids we probably need a lead car right?  I downloaded some patriotic tunes from itunes and talked my husband into leading the pack in his car...

I had planned to just do a loop around our section on the sidewalk, but with 23 kids in their motorized cars, bikes, wagons etc. it was pretty obvious we were going to have to take to the street... and they're off...

We only had one minor issue during the parade.  Next year I will instruct my daughter to make sure she stays BEHIND her daddy in the lead car and doesn't try to pass him :)

After the parade we gave all the kids goody bags that one of my awesome neighbors helped me put together and the kids loved them.

Everyone had an awesome time.  In fact, I heard a lot of comments that this parade was even better than the big neighborhood one.  I seriously always say I live in the best neighborhood in the world with the coolest neighbors.  And they certainly didn't disappoint me this 4th of July.  When I wanted a parade they were more than happy to help out and came with donuts, mimosas and smiles.  A Perfect Parade indeed :)

And as usual there are always a few stragglers after any event in our hood.  This was no exception.  Once most of the crowd had left a few of the kids (including my own two daredevils) decided it would be fun to have a little bumper car derby in the street in front of our house with their parade vehicles. 

These pics honestly don't do it justice.  I really should add the video footage.  They raced around in the street like crazy people.  At one point I made the mistake of getting in between a couple of them and still have the bruises on my leg to prove it.  Ouch!  Painful, but still so fun to watch.  What an awesome holiday!  Happy Birthday America.  We celebrated it right.