Pa-Ray!

After a busy weekend of kid parties, Tripp & I finished off the weekend by attending our towns Memorial Day Parade. I loaded Tripp up in his stroller and we headed downtown (about 2 miles). It was a typical walk until wee ended up on Main Street. Once we arrived and got to see all of the flags, banners and spectators - the Ohhh and Ahhhs began.

"Waz dat?" "Momma look!" "Pa-Ray!"

Tripp is allot like his mommy - a bit of a social butterfly. Happy to meet everyone and greet them with a smile and a wave. As we walked down main street, towards our parade post, Tripp greeted anyone who would glance his way with a "Hi!" "Ipp!" "Pa-Ray!" "Truck!" "Woof! Woof!"

but mostly he chanted "Pa-Ray!" "Pa-Ray!"

We meet up with friends Michelle and Aidan

Here comes the Parade!

Aidan's brother, Robby, was playing his Sax while marching with the
Windham Middle School Marching Band!

The Parade stopped at Memorial Park for some speeches and dedications

Robby

The parade was simply making a stop over at the park and luckily it is also the location of one of our favorite parks in town. So, while the speeches took place I took Tripp & Aidan to the playscape while Michelle supported Robby and his band.

The playground was full of kids. It was perfect, the parents could still hear the ceremony and the kids got to play.




The boys had a blast! They chased each other, climbed, played "store" (this is when you use sticks, leaves, mulch, etc as $ and get a similar item in return that represent Ice-cream, candy, etc...usually a make-believe food item)

We live in the town of Windham, ....... and we LOVE frogs!

Due to the legendary "Battle of the Frogs" in 1754, they are held near and dear to our hearts.

The story goes like this:

In 1754, During the French / Indian War, local Windham-ites were awakened by a horrible flood of noises, a sort of bellowing and shrieking that seemed to come directly from above. The townspeople were terrified. This was during the French and Indian War, and many of the able-bodied men were up north engaged in battles. Many of those who remained in town thought the hideous noises were the war-whoops of local Indian tribes preparing to overrun the village, raping and killing everyone in sight. Others took a more spiritual tack, convincing themselves the horrible noises were from heaven and judgement day was at hand.

They armed themselves and went outside to defend their town.....they saw nothing.

The next morning they discovered the horrific noise was caused by hundreds upon hundreds of Bullfrogs who were battling over water in a nearby dried up pond. The survivors of this Battle of Frog Pond as it came to be known, hipity-hopped down to the Willimantic River, where the happily relocated, repopulated and still live today.

As a testament to our good humor, Windham adopted the frogs as a town mascot and it even adorns our town seal

Needless to say, our town is full of frogs!

They are on our bridge...

Appear as scultpures through out the town.....

Are part of the logos of several businesses.....

(Brew Pub)

and community groups.....

(Windham Cyclers)


Appear in Event Logos and advertisements....

March in our parades....

...and decorate the playgrounds

Once the speeches were over, it was time for the parade to re-group and continue on it's way, down Main Street to it's final stop - the VFW

Here come the Boy Scouts!

After a full morning of parade watching and playground, it was time to relax in the backyard and eat some lunch before nap time.

While we were waiting for our burgers to cook on the BBQ,

we decided to peek at our bird friends.

There are many nooks and crannies in and around our home where birds tend to build their nests.....in the space between the air conditioner and the window sill, in our many trees, gutters, bird houses and most recently the space created by the 2nd chimney where it overlaps a basement window. This is truly an ideal nest spot. It is off the ground, protected from the elements and temperature controlled by the cool foundation in the summer and the warmth from the wood stove in the winter.

Now that we have re-located our family room to the basement (it is cooler in the summer and we have the stove for the winter = lower bills!, Bob's drums and my studio are down there and the extra distance from the noise of the TV helps Tripp sleep) we are constantly treated to the sounds of baby birds chirping! We love it! Tripp "tweet, tweets" back at them and due to their location next to the window, we not only witnessed them building the nest, we can see mommy and daddy bird as they hop in to feed the little ones or out to gather the food.


Close up of the baby birds