We were in TWO St. Pat's Parades

The girls and I had a blast yesterday. They rode on the bandwagon with me for two St. Patrick's Day parades. We met the bus (their first bus ride:) which took the band to our downtown Milwaukee parade route, and participated in that parade. It was pretty funny watching a whole bunch of whisky-infested parade-goers stumbling around---the heart of Milwaukee culture:) I heard an interesting story yesterday that in the late 1800's, the Irish population of Milwaukee used to be a lot higher than the German population; until a boat coming over from Europe sunk and the populations shifted (or it could be the other way around, not sure). I don't really know the facts or all the details, but I thought that was interesting.

After the downtown parade, we hopped back onto the bus (ok, I admit, there were a few of us who couldn't find the bus, and I had to make some calls for the bus driver to come get us, tee hee:) and went to Wauwatosa for our second parade. We had some time between parades so we went into a McDonald's and hung out for awhile. Ok, I'm not proud--I can't believe I did this, but I will share: I was holding a tray full of food with one hand, turned to try to get my girls seated and situated, the tray tipped and everything spilled onto the lap of one of our percussionists (ooops, sorry Mike:) Thankfully, I had not filled my soda or obtained any ketchup at that point:) We still had some time after, so we enjoyed walking through the parade line up and looking at some of the floats, listening to the bag-pipers, and hanging out and taking pictures with THE SAUSAGES---true Milwaukee Icons (mascots of The Milwaukee Brewers, for those not familar with the area). We had a great time on the second parade as well--my girls loved it, and waved to the parade-goers as our band played.

Two parades were of course an all day event for us--but we decided the day was not over---so we rushed back to the car and headed up 20 miles north-west of Madison to attend the very fun-filled benefit for the "son" of a high school friend. A few of my grade-school/ high school friends also made the trip and we had a great time. The girls made new friends quickly, and the kids also had a blast!

We had a fun-filled festive day yesterday (while J stayed behind to tear out the creme-colored carpeting in the front living room; he's getting ready to put the wood laminate in, as we speak---the plastic sheets are hung, so I don't have a house-full of dust, like I did the last time he did this:) *** NOTE: My girlfriend said she saw our float on Milwaukee's TMJ4 News!:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1GzXcg-P7g