Don't Rain on My Parade

Today was the day the much anticipated rodeo parade was to take place in our small town.

Every year at this time, we drive down to starting point to watch cowboys ride by on their horses and clowns drive by in tiny cars. Of course, the highlight is the firefighters who ride atop their firetrucks and sound their sirens while throwing out gobs of candy.

The children stand, eager and ready, with their bags to scoop up the scattered candy and we always come away with a sweet stash to last for weeks.

Since my children are easily entertained, they have been looking forward to this parade and marking days off the calendar all week.

Which is why they awoke at 5:30 this morning, jumping up and down and clapping, and squealing, "THE PARADE! THE PARADE! TODAY IS THE DAY FOR THE PARADE!"

And I only wish that time were an exaggeration.

Which is why, as you can imagine, the thunder and lightning and constant, pouring rain that has been parked over our little town for the last two days has caused much crying and wailing and all around mourning.

We obviously couldn't go to the parade, so I had to do something with all of the pent up energy, I mean, other than hide under my bed, which was my first response.

I decided to pull out the trusty ol' "Pack It All In" activity with the promise of a movie and popcorn if everyone did their best work.

Even though there were no full grown men in hard hats pelting us with candy, everyone had fun creating their picture and enjoyed the movie afterward.

And Mom enjoyed some relative calmness in the literal storm.