St Paddy’s Day Parade

We had a perfect day downtown Lawrence for the St Patrick's Day parade. Sugarwings danced the day away, awash in the joy of it all.

And with her brushes with princesses and beauty queens.   Who knew Kansas was so chock full of royalty?

We had all of the parade court go by, one at a time, Miss Kansas, Mrs. Kansas, Miss Lawrence, Miss Douglas Co., Miss Topeka, Miss Johnson Co. and more.

Sugarwing's own crown broke early in the day, but she had to have it on every time a princess came by.  Her grandfather was happy to hold it in place for her so she could greet her fellow royal friends.  And so many of them were so sweet to her, making sure to greet her, eye to eye and say something.

My husband had the brilliant idea to go downtown early and park our truck so we could  have a base to hang out in. We picked up a bag of green crap beautiful holiday decor, to deck out the truck and make it festive.

I let the girls do all the decorating themselves.  We had green tinsel and leprechaun window clings everywhere.

Being there early, turned it into an almost all day adventure. We had a picnic, did some decorating, went for a walk, but mostly just hung out and had fun together.

Dewdrop didn't get the whole Irish concept, and insisted on wearing pink.  But did consent to wear a green mermaid tale costume.  And every once in a while would put on a hat.  But mostly, she was enthralled by green moustaches and beards on the guys. And thought that leprechauns were Santas.

Personally, I was into  the green thing.  I got a hat from the dollar store and spent a couple minutes glittering it up and added some old millinery flowers with a couple safety pins.

And my witchy socks were called leprechaun socks for the day. 

Sugarwings was all rainbows and green sparkles from head to toe. And used one of the dollar store hats to gather tons of candy that was being passed out. 

She was very good about not eating it, and when Fin came by from one of the floats, she gave most of it to him.  And that guy tossed it to the crowds when he got back on his bus.  I was proud of them all for being good sharers.  For them, it was more about the collecting and tossing than about a sweet tooth.

Our favorite entry in the parade, was of course, the Hoop Mamas. Sugarwing's Hippy Chick mommy and all of their friends ran over to give hugs.

They won 3rd place this year.  Not bad, considering how much time and effort went into so many floats. These girls won with their dance routines.

We thought this garden center float  filled up with baby fairies, was adorable. 

That one got Dewdrop's vote. I think she appreciated that the fairies also preferred pink.

Downtown was pretty crazy and the traffic was bumper to bumper after it was over, but I don't think I'd ever want to go to this parade without the pickup again.  We loved having a home base, and seats.

We were up high and had a great view from the tailgate.  And when our friends came right up to the truck with their horses, Dewdrop had plenty of space to run away from them.

Funny, that kid loves "My Little Pony" more than anything, but when a real horse came up to see her, I practically had to peel her off the roof of the truck cab.

 

Downtown Lawrence is such a pretty place to spend a day.  No matter what day of the year you go.  But St Pat's is a big deal around here and they sure know how to celebrate it.

This year it was even better, with the weather cooperating, and the 17th fell during Spring Break for all the local kids.

I hope we have the luck of the Irish again next year! I already can't wait. What fun.