A Fair Parade

We seem to have a lot of parade blog posts; unfortunately, there isn't a lot to do in our little town, so we must always join in any excitement of any kind.  That means we go to parades whenever they come around.  This parade before the fair is huge - like 1 1/2 hours and kids getting tired huge.  But it was still fun.  And now I have enough candy to last me until Halloween.  Hmmm....maybe I will save the boring hard candies and give them out to the trick-or-treaters.

We happened to be sitting right at the beginning of the parade.  While we waited for the parade to start, a glory riders group invited us to let the kids pet their horses.  Megan was a little skeptical but she did pet one for a second.  Rachel liked the horses and Whitney didn't want to get that close to them.

Whitney was a proud waver.  She waved at practically everything that went by us.  Will would look ahead to see which cars were throwing out candy so we could wave especially well for those ones.

We still didn't get a Hermiston watermelon this year.  Fingers crossed for next year though.  It is still fun seeing a big inflatable watermelon coming though.

There were lots of cool cars to see.

This one was for the zombies.  A little creepy, but I don't think my kids really noticed it.

There was a band, which in my mind makes it a real parade.  So it was fun and the kids enjoyed getting out and seeing all the people.

Megan learned to wave because of the parade.  She got lots of experience in one night.  Maybe I will put up a video of her new tricks next post.

Thursdays

We have fun Thursdays in Umatilla.  There is a park that is only a block from our house that is doing free breakfasts and lunches everyday.  And on Thursday there is also some learning stations for the kids.

We go for breakfast lots of times because there is always cereal for Whitney.  She has never tried anything else.  Rachel is starting to branch out a little bit and has tried a few of the different things that are served.

Megan is technically not one and doesn't get a breakfast.  But my kids never finish their food, so I don't mind sharing with her.  Megan was not too impressed with the french toast.

And then comes the playing.  Head start sets up several stations with different kinds of toys that encourage learning.  This station is my kids' favorite one.  There is food and little babies to be fed.

The 'neighborhood' station.  I like the different buildings that would be seen around a neighborhood.  I have never seen a set like this before and I think it is pretty cool.  Whitney and I played drop the people off the mechanic's shop and then take them to the hospital.  A little morbid, but she liked it.

This station has puzzles that help with learning rhymes or shapes or whatnot.  My kids don't even know they are learning.  I wish I knew where they got some of the toys.  Maybe I will ask.  There are other stations too that we go to sometimes, but I didn't get any pictures of - music, books, art.  

At the end, each kid gets a snack and gets to pick a book.  We have to rush home and read them right away.  So it is a really neat program and we have gotten quite a few free books over this summer.

Obviously, not from the park.  But here are some pictures of the cute kids.  Whitney loves dressing up like a superhero and has told me that she is going to be one for Halloween.

Rachel got this juggle bubble toy from the summer reading program party.  You wear these special gloves that help you catch bubbles.  It was a bit of a challenge for the kids to not just get super excited to pop the bubbles right away.  Maybe we will put this toy away and wait until they are a little bit older.

And Megan looking all cute in her overalls.  She is a pretty happy camper most of the time.

A Bouncing Good Time

I have heard from a couple of people in our area that the Inflatable Fun Gym in Hermiston was the place to go.  I have been putting it off until my kids were older and would appreciate the bounce houses.  We decided to try it last Saturday and the kids had a blast.

Whitney loves loves loves going down slides, and slides on a bounce house are all the better.

Checking out the pirate ship bounce house.  That one looked pretty cool.  Rachel was too scared to get on this one.

I thought this one looked the best.  You could hold onto a rope and jump.  We saw older kids sitting on the rope and swinging and then jumping off into the red bouncy part.  It looked really fun.

Megan got to go into the simplest bounce house.  It was filled with balls.  I think she liked being inside.  At least, she didn't cry.  Rachel loved this bounce house the best.

There were other toys besides the bounce houses.  There were a bunch of toy cars for kids to drive around.

Whitney and Rachel both liked this tool set table. They also had a little house and little kitchen set that were loved.

There were baby toys also.  Megan had fun with this piano.

And she got a ride on a train.  So it was definitely a fun place that wasn't too expensive and had plenty of things for the kids to do.  Now we finally have something we can take people to when they visit us.

A Happy Fourth

So we had a good holiday back in Pasco.  It was quite convenient to have the Fourth land on a Friday and make it a three day weekend for Will.  Here are some pictures from the day.

I wanted to have the kids dress all patriotic.

My parents have a big Fourth of July breakfast where they invite all the neighbors who live around them.  It was a really good turnout.  Everyone was friendly and I think it is a great way to get to know the people around you.

Megan waits with Grandpa for the parade to begin.

Everyone thought this car/submarine was pretty cool.

But not as cool as the waving fireman dog.  The kids got a fair amount of candy and even an otterpop, so they were happy.

Poor Megan got prickly skin heat rash from the parade.  So my mom suggested letting her go naked for awhile to help.  The poor girl didn't seem to mind the little red bumps all over her body.

We went to a water park in between the parade and the fireworks.  Rachel was a little timid in the water, but eventually decided that it was kind of okay.

They were handing out free suckers to the kids entering the stadium for the fireworks.  We got there like an hour early and everything was great and then literally a minute before the show was to start, Whitney needed to go to the bathroom.  Thankfully, we only missed a couple of fireworks, I think.

Will is good at taking firework pictures.  He got several good shots.  Anyway, it was a happy day.

Parade, Water, and Fireworks

The post title pretty much says it all.  Last Saturday was Umatilla's Landing Days.  I don't know how many cities actually celebrate their founding day, but good old Umatilla does.  My mom and Conner also came to visit very early and spent the day with us.  So that was fun.

Waiting for the parade to begin.  The girls did a good job waiting.

Whitney got the most into the parade.  She would wave at everyone.  Here she watches a dance team go by.

And the funny little cars.

You know it is kind of a sad, rinky dink parade when the big hit is the fire station.  Thankfully, my kids are little enough to not know that the parade wasn't very exciting.

After lunch we all went to the pool in Hermiston.  Rachel was very clingy and had a hard time letting go of us. But she agreed to sit out by herself for the picture.  The pool was super crowded but it was fun.

Whitney got more use to the water and would walk around by herself if the water wasn't too deep.  Megan also wasn't thrilled with the water, but we didn't get a picture of that.

That night was fireworks.  The funny story about the fireworks was that we didn't know where we should go to see them.  Last year we watched them from close to our house and we couldn't see them very well.  So we decided to go down to a park.  We thought it would be crowded, but it was empty so we were worried that we wouldn't be able to see them.  Will wanted to take some nice pictures but then the sprinklers turned on like the same time the fireworks began.  So a fast picture was all we got.  Oh well.  The fireworks were still fun to see.

Not part of Landing Days, but we did just bump Megan up to a bigger size of clothes.  Now she is wearing twelve months.  She is happy with her cute outfit.