A lot of catching up to do

Ok, so this last week I have been pretty busy so I haven't really written at all. I took off from work for a few days in order to attend some of the Spud Fest and Lemonade Festival activities. On Thursday we took Jade to the children's activities at SCSU and although it was extremely hot, humid, and windy, she still wanted to do a bunch of things. She painted a picture, made a necklace and a sculpture amongst other things. It was pretty entertaining to watch her work. On Friday we headed over to my mom's and I got to find out my earnings from the first day of the garage sale. I also got to remember why Jade may be my only child. Chaos, utter chaos, I tell you. Dad took us to the fireworks, meaning the youngest five plus Jade and I. We sat up in the announcer's booth and my almost 5-year-old sister freaked out and wanted to go home that instant. She kept going and did not stop until the fireworks started, which was probably about half an hour after we arrived. Arrgh. I knew it was probably a bad idea to stick with the group, but I didn't even realize how much I was going to be gritting my teeth waiting. I also had no idea when I went that I would essentially be trapped because we were locked in until it was done. Right before the fireworks started a group of probably very recently graduated kids snuck into the stands and were all smoking and talking away on their cell phones(two habits I abhore). One of them I swear was streaking in the field and I think they were all about to do it because they walked out to the center, but the sprinklers came on. They all ran back, but after a bit one girl was running around in the sprinklers, with cell phone to her ear nonetheless. After that, they all decided it would be cool. It made me realize what morons they all were. Anyway once the fireworks started and my sister had calmed down it wasn't too bad. It was an alright show for a small town, though, definately nothing to travel all that way for if my family didn't still live there.
The next morning we got up and since Ben was there, we drove down to the parade route a little early and saved spots for everyone. Many people tried to snag the spot we were saving, but too bad for them. Luckily dad and the kids showed up before the parade started, I was getting sick of turning people away. The parade was pretty decent, although not too terribly long. We got to preview the parade from last year on tv for the Lemonade Fest and although it was probably an hour longer, it didn't look too impressive so my home town won. They at least have the floats coming closer together and throw a lot more candy(like we really need anymore, we still have stuff left from Halloween, but Jade enjoyed chasing after it). That night we went back to the Lemonade Fest for the pyrotechnics show and it didn't disappoint. We arrived an hour early so we listened to the band that was playing. What was surprising about this event is that although there was already a ton of people there no one really wanted to sit up front so we got a good place to sit. After the band ended we just turned and we were still right up there for the laser show, no one really sat in front of us or ran us down like we expected. We enjoyed the show alot, although everytime the flames shot off Jade hid under her blanket. She didn't mind the fireworks or sparklers. Afterwards we had Sunday to just relax.