st. patty's day best maid pickle parade

Yesterday was Britton's "Wear Green!" day at daycare, since it wasn't St. Patrick's Day quite yet. I had bought this shirt for her hoping she would love how cute it is, but alas those feelings are just mine. Here she is after I got her home when I told her to wear it for 2 more seconds so I could get a picture.



Then when I said she could take it off.



In years past, the hub and I may have celebrated this day in accordance with his heritage. I am a redhead, but not Irish, and he's part Irish, part modgepodge. The celebration used to be an afternoon in the sun, listening to cover bands, drinking green beer, and later puking up green beer and swearing off drinking ever again. But no more. So this afternoon we were all going to the Best Maid Pickle Parade and dang it all, Britton was wearing that shirt! We pulled a peer pressure move on her, showing her how we were all wearing green so she had to as well. It worked! Of course, that manuver could backfire on us when she's a teenage, but hopefully she won't remember our "creative parenting" by then!

Here are Britton and Memaw while standing in line for horse rides. Britton was all geared up and excited until it got to the time to actually ride the horse. Then she panicked and jumped on me like a spider monkey. We petted the horse then left, to lessen the permanent damage.



Main Street, eagerly anticipating the parade...



We noticed the theater had played "The Quiet Man" - one of the hub's and PawPaw's favorite movies...



The Best Maid pickle Smiley girl! Her "face" is on the top of every jar, and honestly it's the only brand of pickles we buy. But it was weird seeing this giant head in the car.



A tiger? Green tights? I don't know.








What parade doesn't have Elvises on motorbikes wearing tiny green hats?





These girls were the "Cucumber Princesses"...


And the "Pickle Queen"! Not sure what's in the back on the car, but it looks like some horrendous Pier 1 room screen, so it was probably her prize for winning.



I wasn't really sure why the float was named "The Fighting Pickle." Or why this guy was in a green screen suit.



Best ad campaign FAIL! I don't know about you, but when deciding who will handle my "final affairs," the environmentally-friendly factor doesn't factor, you know? Maybe some people do, and that's why they entered the parade to begin with.



Luckily for us, Britton wanted to leave before the pickle eating contest and pickle juice drinking contest began, so it was off to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream. And she wanted to find the tiger from the parade, so we looked for him too. Never did find the tiger, but some men from the parade stopped by the car and gave us their leftover candy. Score!