Here! Here!

Today, we decided to attend the annual St. Patrick's Day parade.

So, we didn't entirely dress up in theme, but hey.  We went.  The entire purpose in going was as a reward for two little kiddos who have put up with their home in disarray (again) as we yet (again) renovated a room.  This time, it was their bathroom.

 We got there pretty much on time so it was a challenge finding a spot near the front where we thought for sure they would have gobs of candy lobbed at them.

 Unfortunately, we were a bit disappointed in that.  The kids spent most of their time with their hands waving or out crying "Here! Here!" and doing their best to get the float participants attention all while remaining behind the line on the road we told them they couldn't pass.

But the first 10-15 floats had absolutely NO candy at all on them and instead a bunch of colorfully dressed people waving.  Once floats started appearing with candy, they either tossed out 1-2 pieces for each side of the road.  Each of which held 20-30 screaming kids clutching their plastic sacks in anticipation of all the candy they would gather.

Finally, floats started arriving that were tossing out handfuls in all directions.  But each and every time, they ran out of candy in their boxes/bags/totes/whatever at the very moment they passed us by.

If the floats decided to personally hand out the candy, the kids to the right and to the left of us got the candy while mine were woefully ignored.

Needless to say it was a frustrating experience.  At one point, after complaining to one of the volunteers, he made it a point to pick up the stray candy that was too far in the road for the kids to gather and personally handed it to us.  Through some pretty strange antics of ours, we managed to gain enough attention to get a few beads and other goodies.

Still, we managed to leave with a decent pocketful of candy, a bunch of sunshine, fresh air and a long walk.  It wasn't all a loss.