March, 1, 2, 3, 4...

Our little town has a great little parade every Memorial Day. It is basically city officials, vets, a couple bands, some old cars, and, of course, the firetrucks! We live close enough to the parade route that we can load everyone in the strollers and walk to find a spot. This year it took two strollers and we had to cross the main road but it was worth it! Previous years we sat by ourselves and just enjoyed watching the parade. This year? We met up with two of Tater's friends from preschool and their families as well as two church families that we enjoy spending time with! We had quite the crowd on our corner!

G-Baby fell asleep before the parade even started and didn't wake up until it was over!

Her big sister did the same thing at her first parade!
This was before her nap - snack time!

Drink break!

Bruiser couldn't even stop to "cheese" the camera...and we did feed them breakfast!

Here's part of our entourage!

It was so great to share the morning with all our Rhode Island "family"!

Tater with her bestest friend, E.

"The Girls"

E, Tater, and M

(Tater's friends from preschool)

After the parade, we walked back to our house and loaded into the car to head to a picnic at our good friend, B's, mother's house. The best news to our kids...and no matter how cold it was...THE POOL WAS OPEN! After a quick costume change, Tater donned her water wings and headed in! Even though the water was frigid, she did manage to get very wet and we were able to see how tall she got over the winter! (Last summer the water was up to her chin on tip-toes...this summer she could stand flat and her arms were out of water.)

Bruiser opted to spend the afternoon splashing the kiddie pools and throwing balls into the big pool for his friend, Brother, to fetch! Notice the floatation devise he is wearing in the pictures - I couldn't find his wings, so he got stuck with a very un-manly suit. Bruiser didn't mind but Daddy sure did! The only reason it stayed on was because he would run right to the edge of the pool to throw those darn balls in and we didn't want to have jump in after him!

Bruiser doing some kind of a splash dance - he acts a bit special sometimes!

Tater braving the frigidness!

Push away those ice cubes and swim!

We ended our busy day with a nice little dinner at home with our good friends, Dana and Nicholas. Daddy made ribs on the grill for the first time and they were yummy! We enjoyed other picnic-y foods (and even a chocolate pudding pie!) before the mosquitos chased us inside. The little ones headed to bed (amid screams of "but I'm not tired!") while the men retreated to the "man room" and the ladies vegged in front of a bit of TLC. All in all it was a picture-perfect kind of day! (except for Nicholas' trouble with my "hidden" furniture...who knew furniture could be hidden in plain sight!)