Do the Miss America Wave

Every year our town gets together to celebrate.

Family members and friends return home where high school reunions, family reunions, and get togethers abound. It's a time to remember great stories from the past and rekindle memories as long as the west Texas sunset. There are games on main street, a community barbecue, and even a dance, but the most fun can always be held at the Saturday morning parade.

Now I'm singing that old, old song, "I love a parade!" Do you know it? Um, me neither, just the title, that's all. It seems most everyone comes home for the celebration and parade.

Our family has participated in several. One year I looked at Mr. Incredible's sad, old golf cart and decided to give it a makeover so the girls could drive it in the parade. We painted it hot pink with white daisies...and it was cute....at least the girls and I thought that it was. He hasn't played golf since. Oh, I'm just kidding. He has played golf, just not with the pink golf cart.

Anyway, back to this year's parade. My sister-in-law, Melissa, decided to get a family float together 2 days before the big event. Go Melissa!

She rounded up the whole family....wanna see?

Need a close up? Can you see my girls?

You can tell that everyone had a great time, just look at those smiles.


Here they are headed back to main street:



Oh, another shot. Can you find Rachel & Hannah?
Do the Miss America wave....please? pretty please? Oh, alright, moving on!



Cheerleaders, family floats, class reunion floats, and John Deer tractors!




There was even a "Princess" float in honor of a girl in our town that is turning 40 sometime this year. I think she is one of 6 or 7 sisters and she has had a 40th birthday float for all of her sisters in years past. They decided to do her float, "up big" as they say around here. Her throne was made up of hay bales, I think, and they had pictures of her all over the float, and they topped it off with a ginormous pink tiara. Would you like to see that? Me too, but I was so dumbfounded that I forgot to snap another photo.

Here is another shot of the parade. It was hot outside! See the umbrellas?





And then the 4 wheeler gang:


A man on a red tractor. I love the flags on the front.

And then "the law" showed up and the parade was over. Not really, the law did show up but that was just the last photo that I took.

After the parade it was time for family, food, fellowship, and fun.

I had fun brewing the beer....I got your attention, didn't I?

I had fun brewing the Root beer. Have you ever made root beer?

Rush right out and buy root beer concentrate and make your own.

It is sooooooo much fun and delicious too!

I found this recipe here and just knew that I had to try it.

Here is what you need:

5 gallon thermal container

fill the container 3/4 of the way with ice cold water (the colder the better)

2 ounces of root beer concentrate (you can find it next to the vanilla extract in the grocery store)

5 pounds of sugar (yes, I know that is a lot!)

and 7 to 8 pounds of dry ice

Directions: Add the sugar to the cold water and stir until it is dissolved. Add the root beer concentrate and stir well. Using gloves, place the dry ice in the container and let the fun begin!

It will bubble and crackle and sound like it is boiling...the kids loved it!

Try to put the lid on the container, very gently, you don't want to seal it off completely because then you might have an explosion, but you want to try to cover it so the dry ice can carbonate the root beer. After about 10 or 15 minutes you are ready to enjoy the best root beer ever.

My oldest nephew said, "Aunt Kiki, this is way better than A&W root beer!"

We just needed some homemade vanilla ice cream to go with it.

It was a fun day! Does your town have annual celebrations too?

Joyfully,

Kristi