Sweet parade

Happy birthday, America! What a great day to celebrate the vision of our founding fathers; to dress up in red, white and blue; and to gather with friends and family.

And get candy. Lots and lots of candy.

Waiting for the parade to start: AJ and Sydney with friends Carver and Ethan.

As has been our tradition for as long as Sydney's been alive (and possibly starting the year before), my parents drove up from the Cities to join us for this bit of Americana: the Cloquet parade.

I have to confess I'm a bit disappointed. This is the first year I didn't get a picture of either of my parents in the middle of the street bending down to grab candy.

The weather was great this year, but we chose a bad corner from which to watch the parade. There were lots of kids clustered together, which led to some pretty stiff competition each time people on passing floats tossed out a handful of sweets.

Or maybe it was a very good corner. The kids were so determined to get candy that they grabbed whatever they could, unlike previous years when they couldn't be bothered to pick up something as common as a Tootsie Roll.

Also, they didn't come home this year with enough candy to last until Halloween. This should only last them about a month. And there were lots of jawbreakers tossed to the crowd, which my children were happy to retrieve and present to me.

How blessed we are that the home of the free and the brave is so well stocked with candy.