The boys and I had a wonderful adventure this past weekend. On Friday evening, we loaded up into the truck and headed down to Grandma Sally's house for the weekend. The purp
ose of our trip was to visit Grandma and Grandpa but also to attend the Gasparilla Extravaganza!
Gasparilla is a Tampa tradition that has in place since 1904. To read about the history of Gasparilla, click here. We decided to take the boys to the Children's Parade. I was really surprised at the size of the parade. The parade started at 3:30pm and included over 100 units. It was a BIG and LONG parade!!
W
e arrived around 2:00 and made our way to the viewing area. The boys were in their stroller and while they were riding to our spot, Wesley played the part of "Joe Cool" and proceeded to prop not one but both of his feet up on the bar.... too funny! The boys (of course) drew a lot of attention as we walked through the crowds. When we finally found a spot, the boys had their late afternoon bottle .
He had one little incident during the parade that I must share. When the parade started, I would take turns holding each of
the boys so they could see the parade. One of the exciting parts of the parade is catching the beads, dablooms and other items tossed from the floats. As soon as the bead throwing started, my "Mommy instinct" took over and I proceeded to focus on defending my babes. As one set of beads came close to us, I quickly threw my hand out in front of Andrew to protect him from harm. Well...... in my moment of reflex, I forgot that the camera was hanging off my wrist. Instead of protecting my first born son, I caused him harm! The camera slammed into his head and he began to scream. I was holding Wesley at the time so I quickly put Wesley down and scooped up Andrew. He calmed down pretty quick and giving him his binkie also helped. In this picture you can see the little bump on his head. I am so sorry little fella.....
ose of our trip was to visit Grandma and Grandpa but also to attend the Gasparilla Extravaganza!Gasparilla is a Tampa tradition that has in place since 1904. To read about the history of Gasparilla, click here. We decided to take the boys to the Children's Parade. I was really surprised at the size of the parade. The parade started at 3:30pm and included over 100 units. It was a BIG and LONG parade!!
W
e arrived around 2:00 and made our way to the viewing area. The boys were in their stroller and while they were riding to our spot, Wesley played the part of "Joe Cool" and proceeded to prop not one but both of his feet up on the bar.... too funny! The boys (of course) drew a lot of attention as we walked through the crowds. When we finally found a spot, the boys had their late afternoon bottle .He had one little incident during the parade that I must share. When the parade started, I would take turns holding each of
the boys so they could see the parade. One of the exciting parts of the parade is catching the beads, dablooms and other items tossed from the floats. As soon as the bead throwing started, my "Mommy instinct" took over and I proceeded to focus on defending my babes. As one set of beads came close to us, I quickly threw my hand out in front of Andrew to protect him from harm. Well...... in my moment of reflex, I forgot that the camera was hanging off my wrist. Instead of protecting my first born son, I caused him harm! The camera slammed into his head and he began to scream. I was holding Wesley at the time so I quickly put Wesley down and scooped up Andrew. He calmed down pretty quick and giving him his binkie also helped. In this picture you can see the little bump on his head. I am so sorry little fella.....
The boys' afternoon nap is typically from 3:00pm - 5:00pm. Well, the parade took place right
during nap time. I thought the boys may fall asleep but they were awake the full time. We decided to leave around 5:00pm because the boys looked very tired. On our way back to the car, the boys were already starting to fall asleep and the slept the full ride home. We had a really great time and hope this is the start of our own little family tradition. Grandma and I were already talking about having 21 month olds next year. Maybe we will even dress them up like little pirates. Just the idea of three little pirates running around saying "arrrrrrggg" is something to look forward to! Check out my aggressive little pirates trying to steal Grandma's beads....
Don't worry, Grandma was catching beads for the boys. We even had people standing around us giving the boys beads. The boys loved (to eat) their beads. This is a picture of the boys on the way to the car wearing all of their "loot."
The entire week leading up to the parade, I was not sure I was going to make the trip because work has been very busy and I knew I would be traveling the day after returning home. On Friday morning, I woke up and made the decision to go. After the weekend was over, I was really glad we made the trip.Aunt Connie and Aunt Sue....... BRING ON MARDI GRAS!!!
Take care,
Love the stroller! I have to ask where did you get it? I am looking for something similar. How do you like it?
ReplyDeleteShayna
What a fun event!!! I'm always nervous taking the boys out during their schedukled naptime. I'm glad it worked out so well for you. I'm also glad that Andrew is okay after the beed/ camera insident :-). Tough little guy!!!
ReplyDelete