Thursday, July 9, 2009

Circus Parade Preview and an Afternoon at the Beach

While I packed up the car to go down to the lakefront today, I gave Rebekah a bottle of bubbles to play with. Alyssa was at her first stage workshop and Emma was still at G & G's house, so it was just me and her heading out to see the Circus wagons that will be in this weekend's Great Circus Parade.


One big bubble.


Sour face because she got bubbles in her mouth.


The Great Circus Parade used to be an annual tradition in Milwaukee. This is the first time they have had it in the five years we have lived here, and they have already decided they just don't have enough money in the budget to do it again next summer. I took lots of pictures of the wagons because I didn't know how easy they would be to photograph while they are moving in the parade on Sunday.


Ringling Brother's Giraffe Wagon.


Some of the detail on the wagons was incredible. This is Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater.


Especially the wheels had really neat and intricate designs. Below are a few of my favs.








The pretty pink for Emma.


This was a German organ wagon that played music. It had some inscription on it in German that I didn't understand.


The Cinderella Wagon.


Cool detail on Cinderella.


They had a costume tent full of beautiful wardrobe choices for the performers.


Kamele took a little train ride. She is sitting in the front row of the last car.


A tiny smile as she realized this button made a small horn sound.


Lounging on her train ride.


It was like she wasn't sure what to do without her big sisters there. As she boarded the train, I saw her start to sit in the row with the older girl behind her, and it was almost like she realized, "wait, I'm here by myself and this isn't my sister," and she moved to her own row. She enjoyed the train, I could just see she felt like something (or someones) were missing.


Coming out of the train with a big smile.


With her favorite: Cotton Candy!


The American Wagon.


Another American Wagon.


The French Wagon.


The Royal Italian Circus Carriage.


One more US wagon.


Standing in her stroller to get a better look at the elephant. I know elephants are strong, and this one certainly didn't seem bothered by it, but there were 6 people riding it ~ it seemed like a little too much to me.


Rebekah loved this antelope. A moment earlier her hand was in the fence, but when it started to sniff her fingers, she quickly took it away.


The baby goats were very cute too.


Swinging at the park.


Wild slide.


We walked across the sidewalk to the beach where she filled her bucket with sand, and insisted that the seagull in this photo wanted to eat from it. She had no luck in catching up with it.


Looking down the beach and smiling as she tries to find another bird to follow.


The sand castle we worked on. By the time we left it was much bigger, we just kept adding to it.


The rocky lakeshore at McKinley Beach.


At this beach there are blue cabanas, and Rebekah had a lot of fun running back and forth between them playing peek-a-boo with me. Here, she's barely peeking out.


Laughing as she peeks out.


"I see you."


"Now I'm going down here."


Leaping out.


Running back to me.


Once the game wasn't that interesting anymore, she wanted to move her beach blanket into the cabana.


The moment we walked away from our castle (and the little child who wanted to feed them out of a bucket was gone) the seagulls suddenly took an interest in our beach blanket spot. They continued to stay pretty close to us once we returned, I even had to shoo one away and say "NO!" to it. They must be used to people feeding them.

2 comments:

KmCaCFamilyof5 said...

That is the cutest dress on Rebekah. I have to imagine it came from Hawaii :) Looks like she had a fun day!! She has such a great smile!

jessica said...

I meant to respond to this before. Yes, the dress came from Hawaii. It was a birthday gift to Emma from Dave's sister and her family when she was younger. I was so bummed, because it has always been a favorite outfit, and this time when I took it out of the wash it had a teeny hole (probably from being worn and washed so many times). Anyway, it made it through 2 little girls who don't exactly play gently in their clothes, I can't ask much more than that!!