Homemade Fun

Last Wednesday we hosted the second neighborhood Thanksgiving parade. It had rained all morning, and as my sign shows, we got a brief shower in the afternoon that dampened turnout a little bit, but lots of friends, family and neighbors still joined us for this very "small-town"--as one neighbor called it--event. Warren led our parade, wearing a pilgrim hat from school, wearing his "5 Finger Testimony Glove" to show what he was thankful for and pulling a wagon loaded with pumpkins, a rake and the boom box that played Sousa's "Starts and Stripes Forever."

This was the scene as we waited for everyone to arrive; when your parade only last about 5 minutes, you want to make sure everyone is there. I love the images of everyone just standing around, turned to another neighbor and having a friendly exchange.

The parade in action: kudos to my little sister Annie--in the brown jacket up front--who made a float and pulled Avery in it!

Abigail rode her trike and hefted a pumpkin sign from our front yard. I love the bonnet from school! Afterward, everyone played in our back yard and had cookies. Simple and fun and fully home-grown.
Other home-grown fun we have been up to: one morning as I awoke I was invited in for the play "Extreme Home Makeover" that Warren and Abigail were putting on in our living room. They had built a "house" out of cushions on the couch and just like in the show, the first order of business was for Abigail to show "Ty" --aka Warren--what was wrong with her house. He asked, "What's wrong with your house?" Abigail kept saying, "Well, we ran out of cushions," to which "Ty" kept responding, "No--doesn't it have mold or something?" They repeated this exchange a few times until Abigail took him inside the house to show him. After, Warren explained, "Now you get to go on a vacation to San Diego so you don't die while we work on your house," and he whisked her away. Next was demolition time, where Warren tore apart the house with his bare hands. Then he built a new house for Abigail to come home to. Andy knelt in front of it as the bus while Abigail and Warren called out, "Busdriver--move that bus!" Andy moved and Abigail of course showed the appropriate emotion before going in and checking out the house. It was pretty much the cutest play I've ever seen. Warren would like to add: "What's funny about the house was that it looked like it had ivy on the house but it was really ivy painted on the cushions. But the problem was really that there was mold. The ivy was just to make it look pretty."