I love a parade.

Today was our town's annual Homecoming parade. It's the biggest event of the year in our community, and seemly everyone in town turns out wearing their gear to show support for our high school team.

This was the first year that Lauren had the opportunity to march in the parade. She could have marched with either her primary school or her dance school, but because she loves kindergarten so much, she chose to march with her school. I volunteered to march with her.

We arrived at the meeting place a half hour before the parade started so that we could queue up and get our big bag of candy to toss to the the parade onlookers. Lauren's school has a student body of around 300 kids, so I was disappointed when only around 15 kids showed up to march. Nonetheless, the low turnout gave Lauren the opportunity to carry the school banner.

Since Mark was going to be watching from the sidelines, I entrusted him with photog duties. This lead to a small freak out moment when the parade started. It went something like this:

OHMYGOD BAGPIPERS!! THERE'S BAGPIPERS! AND CLYDESDALES! MY CAMERA!! MY CAMERA!!!

So I pulled out my phone and sent him a text:

PLEASE TAKE GOOD PHOTOS FOR ME. LOVE, YOUR WIFE.

And I wasn't disappointed - Mark did a great job! He gets the credit for almost all of these photos.

So without further ado, he comes the parade!



This year's theme was "A Hero's Welcome." Our neighbor Ron, who is a veteran, was one of the flag bearers. He's in the middle carrying the State of Pennsylvania flag.



Here are the aforementioned clydesdales. The fearless leader of our group warned us to watch out for the poop. Nevertheless, one of the kids stepped in some just as we were at the end of the parade route. As we all let out a big groan, one of the onlookers yelled, "That's okay! It'll wash off!"



Here come the bag pipers - YAY!



So cool...



Like every parade, there were lots of vintage cars.



Mark wants to get one so that we can ride instead of walk. I think I'm going to investigate how your car qualifies. Maybe they'd let us ride in the MINI.



Speaking of mini, here are some mini cheerleaders.



Unlike that Phillies fan, these spandex men were welcome in the parade.



Here's one of the littlest marchers. Alumni march in the parade as well. The oldest was from the Class of '36 (Do the math!).



There was also a colorful kid sized train.



By this time, we caught up to Mark on the sidelines. Who is that women who is far to happy to be in the parade? Yeah, that would be me.



When Mark saw how small our group was, he decided to join us!



This one has a good perspective of the crowds.



When we got to the end, my dad took a photo of us. Then, we got to enjoy the rest of the parade.



You want tissue paper floats? You GOT tissue paper floats.



Buzz and Woody!



Then the band finally arrived!



The best vantage point - Daddy's shoulder, of course.




And when it was all said and done, we marched on home.