Gilbert Days Parade

Layla has been LOVING her dance class, and on Saturday she got to perform in the Gilbert Days Parade. I can't recall her ever being more excited for anything. For weeks she asked daily if tomorrow was the day of the parade, but the true measure of her excitement was her eagerness to get up and get ready when I woke her at 6:30 am (I usually have to drag her out of bed at 7:30 for school).


We met her group at the staging area, where all of the girls got their hair done, put finishing touches on their makeup, and received matching sparkly earrings, which was icing on a decadent chocolate cake for Layla. I left her there to meet up with Ry and Weston to watch the parade. It amazes me that my little girl is so grown up that I am dropping her off with her dance company in the Big Lots parking lot and picking her up three hours later, after she finishes her parade. I swear she was in diapers five minutes ago.



We parked ourselves towards the end of the route so we could pick up Layla right when she finished. Weston loved watching the horses and motorcycles, but hated the big trucks that kept blowing their horns.



After half an hour he was bored senseless and wanted to crawl in the street and check out the horse poop when one of the rodeo queens rode by on her stallion throwing out handfuls of candy. SCORE! Weston proceeded to eat several suckers (one of which I'm pretty sure had gum on the inside), some chocolate and a few carnations that a local flower shop handed out. He was on a pretty solid sugar high when Layla's float finally came by, so he giddily flapped his arms and screamed when Ryan and I saw Layla and did roughly the same thing.











For the girls her age, the "performance" consisted of riding on the float and waving silver pom-poms at appropriate times, but the simplicity of the task in no way detracted from the richness of the experience. She shook her pom-poms fast and she shook 'em high and the look on her face told me that she was proud to be a part of something that she had practiced for, waited for, and looked forward to for so long. Ryan and I agreed that we have never seen her so happy as during and after the parade. We are so proud of her dedication and passion at such a young age.