This is one of those posts that I write every year and I feel like I say the same thing over and over again. Do you mind?
Living in a small town is one of my favorite things. It has its disadvantages, certainly, but there are so many wonderful things that we choose to focus on those instead. High School Homecoming is the highlight of football season and everybody in town turns out for a full week of events. With dance pretty much monopolizing our lives, we had to opt out of the weeknight activities, but boy did we shop up on Friday.
We don’t send our girls to school on Homecoming any more because it is always too hard to get them checked out and either lined up for the parade or camped out downtown to watch. Josh sat in a carpool line for hours one year and vowed to never do that again! I took a half-day off this year and they were pacing the floor when I walked in the back door! Armed with a blanket and our brother-cousin, we walked a few blocks from home and found a nice place to sit and wait on the sirens to round the corner.
Did I mention it was smoking hot?!
We usually sit on the other side of this railroad bridge because my favorite part is to finally see the police cars come under the overpass, but we opted to hang out here this year. The crowd was thinner and we were a block closer to home. I promise you when K and I walked these three tired, sugar-crazy kids home we were glad not to have that extra block to contend with.
Of course, every girl’s favorite part of the parade are the fire trucks full of cheerleaders. I remember loving that as a little girl, too!
Now my favorite part is scoring a Blow-Pop while the kids are fighting over Tootsie Rolls and Skittles!
We were planning to walk to the high school for the Pep Rally after the parade, but they were hot and sweaty and everyone agreed what they really needed was a shower and a nap! We had a few hours at home in the cool before it was time to don our black and gold and walk to the Annual Alumni Tailgate. That is definitely one thing I’ll miss about this neighborhood — we just packed up our wagon and walked down the street!
Sophie was promptly greeted by all kinds of sweet faces. There was never a girl who loved her friends more than this one.
And those cousins! Soph and Blakelee take dance together this year, so they are pretty in love with each other. Blakelee’s mama even said she was worried Sophie wouldn’t love her new shirt! Could they be any cuter?
What is Homecoming without our family photo op. Can’t you tell how happy J is taking this one? I promised him if he would just pose for a few minutes and get it over with that I wouldn’t bother him all night.
I can assure you that this meal was NOT Whole30 approved. We had BBQ, pringles, brownies and buffalo chicken dip. The Dr. Peppers just might have been endless, too.
I always love to get a good picture with my mama and my sister. Lucy (not my mom’s real name, but I still call her that most of the time) wasn’t happy with this one because of her head-tilt, but it was my favorite. How pretty are they?
We won the game, but not on Friday. The weather turned bad after half-time and the refs postponed the finish because of lightning. They waited patiently for quite awhile before deciding to resume the game on Saturday night! We were at home watching the miserable win by Bama over Arkansas, so we missed the big finish, but we won the game, which is always nice on Homecoming.
And because we all know I like a good comparison, here are my favorite family photo ops from the most recent Alumni Tailgates.
2012 — click here to read
2013 — click here to read
2014
