Friday, May 05, 2006

The Apple Blossom Festival Begins

The kids didn't have school today because of Apple Blossom...this whole town shuts down for it. The kids and I headed over to the school for the Antique Fire Truck Show. We ran into Jacob's friend, Nick and his mother, Cheryl, and sister and stopped to chat for a while. First question Cheryl asks me (insert a very strong Southern accent here), "how much are ya'll doin' for the Bloom?" I tell her that it's going to be a very blossom weekend and she seems satisfied. The kids and I head over to the mall for lunch and I was asked by the cashier at Quizno's, the lady at the Children's Place and the guy at the Daily Grind, "are you planning on enjoying a lot at Apple Blossom this weekend?" Driving to Martin's (yes, Sue, we wound up driving to the grocery store tonight...ended up with a nice salad, fruit salad, garlic bread and fettuccine alfredo) every single business with a sign had an Apple Blossom reference on it. "Enjoy the Bloom!" "Welcome to the 79th Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival!" "Happy Apple Blossom!" Car dealerships were all decked out with pink and green balloons on the cars. Customers at stores were dressed in pink and green...blossom necklaces, blossom shoes (heck, the Apple Blossom Store has Apple Blossom thongs). We all went out for a walk after dinner and once again ran into Nick's family. They were driving to the fireworks. Cheryl leans out of the window and asks (again, insert big Southern accent here), "are ya'll walkin' to the fireworks?" Mike and I laugh and wave. We come home and our neighbor, Jim, pulls into his garage with his son, Ryan. Ryan runs outside with a new toy screaming towards Jacob, "I got an M-16!" Jacob and Daniel are in awe of Ryan's new toy gun. Jim comes out and asks a familiar question, "are ya'll plannin' on enjoyin' the festival this weekend? You know, Ryan and Kelsey did the Bloomin' Mile today." Once again, I feel the need to give a play-by-play of our weekend so that we don't look bad in front of the locals. He gives an approving nod and feels the need to explain why his wife and daughter will not be able to do any festival activities on Saturday (Kelsey has a national cheer tournament in Baltimore). You'd better have a good excuse if you're not participating in something every day! It's so funny how big this thing is. It really is hard to not get caught up in it!

Anyway, here are some pictures from the fire show (you can click on the pictures to enlarge them). Their favorite was the blue firetruck. (Yes, Hannah's wearing pink snowboots)

The kids and the fire chief's car

I just liked this one

5 comments:

Susan said...

Hannah and Sophia have the same lovely snowboots. Now if we could just figure out why they like to wear them out of season.

Barbara said...

Target, baby! It is rather interesting that the kids love to wear sandals in the winter (usually after 8 inches of snow) and snowboots in the summer...last summer, you could smell Daniel's feet coming from a mile away. It's just not a battle I wish to fight!

Anonymous said...

You know, there isn't a battle here. I put away the snow boots, mittens, hats, etc. when they arn't looking. Of course, that's just from experience because my kids would wear them too. It's not so bad in May but it gets worse.

Susan said...

The thing is, I thought that I HAD put them away.

Barbara said...

My problem was that I cleaned out the closet and when she opened it, there they were. We bought flip flops yesterday and she's so in love with those that she may have forgotten the boots (at least I hope so)!