Weekend Co-Op

It's the time of year once again for our little town's festival weekend. This is the same little festival event that Eric volunteers the majority of his time helping with the fire department food stand and I assist my friends on the same operating committee of which I abandoned almost one year ago.

Since Eric and I do put in several hours throughout the weekend, my parents are always gracious enough to come and take charge of our household operation for the time we are away. It was a pleasant sight coming home from work on Friday evening to have my mom welcome me at the door with Lincoln in her arms and an excited Elaina running in behind her.

While Eric was gone the majority of Friday evening putting in his hours at the park, my mom and dad took the kids to the festival as I scurried around and set up an entire garage sale for the next morning. All in one night. Yes, it can be done. And, well, I might add. Grammy and Pop-Pop reported that Elaina shook her bootie to the music at the bandstand while Lincoln stayed awake, soaking in compliments and attention well past both of their bedtimes.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why our town cannot hold successful garage sales. Saturday morning was a huge disappointment as far as profitable sales. Yes, I got rid of more than I started with and came out ahead with a couple extra dollars in my pocket, but not even close to the traffic of what could be expected. Since I can't shrink my kids to fit their old clothes and I've already run the circuit of selling to resale shops, I priced all of my items dirt cheap to clear my tables. Aside from kid clothes, I had an entire table full of housewares, decorations and even a lawnmower off to the side. No takers! Pooey! I did sell one of my old Coach handbags which was actually easier to part with than I had expected. Woo... now I'm rich.

I had a commitment to volunteering on Saturday afternoon while I let my mom and dad continue to run the show back at home. Afterward, we all headed down to the festival and enjoyed some good junk food and company of our neighbors throughout the town. Every year, I'm reminded how nice it is to live in a small town where we're fortunate enough to have met lots and lots of great and genuine people that we call our friends. When Sunday morning finally rolled around, Elaina was thrilled to still have her Grammy and Pop-Pop with her one more day. We had been telling her that this was the day of the parade and that if she was good and ate all of her lunch, she would get to watch the parade. Around 9 in the morning, Elaina was no where to be found. I searched all of the downstairs until I heard her little voice coming from up above. Elaina had pulled a little stool in front of our spare bedroom window and was perched there waiting for the parade to begin. Little did she know, the parade wouldn't be starting for five more hours and she was facing the wrong side of the house. Poor child.

My second and final commitment of the weekend was to help out with the parade. My job was to help register everyone in attendance and usher them from the field to kick off the parade. Essentially, I got to see all of the parade, only in slow motion. I managed to catch the last 5 minutes of the parade with Elaina and my folks and snap some cutie pics in the meantime. Check out this awesome sign that our neighbors made for Elaina to hold for the parade!Practicing her parade wave with Grandma and Pop-Pop.This is how Lincoln enjoyed his very first parade. Even Elaina's friend, Ali, was able to stop by for a visit, a playground invitation and a share in Elaina's parade candy. Yum!

While I do love my mom and dad plenty, I resorted to sheer bribery in pitching my case to them for one last favor. Since we had all been so busy running around all weekend, I didn't feel like I had hardly any time to spend with them before they intended to leave on Sunday afternoon. I hit below the belt when I offered to take my mom shopping and promised my dad dinner at a great BBQ restaurant if they would stay just one more night. Hooray! They accepted!

We enjoyed our Sunday evening together doing some shopping and eating a great dinner. Even though it wasn't the BBQ that I had boasted, we all enjoyed our Chinese buffet just the same. Better yet, my mom and I got some great buys and finally had some time to visit with one another.

Although we had a very busy weekend, it was one of the best. Thank you mom and dad for running the show in our absence and hugging and squeezing our kids to pieces. Lincoln got to know your voices and your warmth and Elaina was just crazy about having you at her house. A great time by far!