MU Homecoming

One of the sad things about not being greek in college, is that I didn't really DO Homecoming when I was in school. So, this year Josh and I decided to get tickets to the game and really do all of the fun stuff that goes along with it- the parade, House Decs, etc. etc. And we had a blast!

Despite Laney being sick this week, she was a real trooper! We started off the festivities with House Decorations on Friday night. I'd heard lots about them, but never been (sad, I know- I graduated from MU for goodness sake!). Anyway, we had a pretty good time, despite some nasty weather (40s and rainy) and a slightly cranky daughter! We met up with Bob and Robyn, who were in town for homecoming, and wandered around with them for awhile, which is always fun! The theme this year was fairy tales/nursery rhymes, so we saw lots of fun stuff for Laney! And, of course, took the camera along...

Laney's favorite moment of the night: SHEEP! One of the houses did their's on Little Bo Peep, and had real, live sheep there. Laney had a blast petting them!

The view is always better from Daddy's shoulders!

The characters in the AgSig show... the Truman looked pretty cool, but the rest of them looked a little, well, rushed. Check out Blaine Gabbert the hunchback...

So, Laney saw a kid with a balloon, so much of our evening was spent trying to find which house was giving out the balloons (a la Roots, Blues & BBQ). We did eventually find it, and it actually turned out to be the best house decs we saw. They did the Little Engine that Could, and their pomping was AWESOME, they even pomped their characters! So it was worth the balloon hunt!

The Homecoming festivities continued bright and early the next morning, when we met Grandma & Grandpa Looten and Grandma Jo at the Rec Center for the pancake breakfast. Laney managed to con one of the workers out of a couple of balloons, and we all enjoyed the breakfast!!

Laney riding around with Grandma Jo... and the balloons, of course!

Headed out with Grandma Looten for the start of the parade! With balloons, OF COURSE! :)

After the breakfast, we just headed down the sidewalk to Rollins to watch the parade! Laney hadn't ever been to a parade before, so it was a new experience! She wasn't too sure about the candy at first, but pretty soon she was racing out into the street (oh, great) to grab smarties and suckers! It was so funny, because she ate suckers the ENTIRE time. So as soon as she would finish one, she would dig in the bag for another one. By the end of the parade she was surrounded by sucker sticks (because she didn't pick them up, of course- although we did afterwards). Laney loved the bands and the floats and the music, and the candy, of course! By the end of the parade she had a massive bag of candy, plus 3 balloons, and was one tired little girl!!

Sucker in one hand... balloon in another. Hard to imagine a happier 2 year old!

This was the float for the house we saw the night before that had the really neat Little Engine that Could house decs. Their float was also cool!

This truck just cracked us up... it's front end was practically pointing to the sky! Probably wouldn't have been so bad if there wasn't a load of people in the back...

Laney's friends the sheep from the night before. Yes, they painted one of them yellow!

After the parade, digging through her "haul." Yes, we collected in a recycling bag, it was all Grandma Jo had and I didn't think far enough ahead to pack a bag!

After the parade, and some serious napping, we got dressed up again and headed to the game itself! We were afraid it was going to be freezing, but it actually ended up really nice. 50's and not too windy. The game itself, not so good. But we had fun at the Zimmer Radio tailgate before hand, and just hanging out with Grandma & Grandpa Looten!

Laney and Grandma, headed to the tailgate!

Totally Josh's daughter... look at her going after that hot dog!

Listening to the radio during the game...

Grandma, Grandpa, and Laney towards the end of the game (note the empty seats!)

So my first all out Homecoming was absolutely a blast! We had fun with old friends, and with Grandma & Grandpa Looten & Grandma Jo! And Laney did great through the whole thing (only a few fits, but she wasn't feeling so good).

On another note... two posts so close together, amazing, right? Well, I figured out (thanks to a tip from Jess) that I could email my pictures from Picasa to my post and not have to deal with uploading them 5 at a time and in the wrong order, etc. etc. All you do is set it up (directions here), then from Picasa "hold" the pictures you want in your tray, then email them to the address you set up. It's pretty sweet! And way faster than fighting with the uploading!

As far as Laney goes, she was sick on Thursday with a 102 temp, but Friday she was a-ok. She kind of fought a low grade temp (around 100) some of the weekend. But then today she was sick again, so we kept her home and took her to the doctor. Yep, her flu test came back faintly positive... which means she is probably just getting over it. Whoops... so I feel bad that we exposed who knows how many people to it. But, oh well... guess it was a pretty mild case, and we seem to be on the upside of it!