Festival Time!

The big kickoff for Fall Festival time in our family is the first weekend of October. Oregon, IL hosts it's annual Autumnfest and Parade. It's become a yearly ritual, no matter the weather or apparently, our health. This year it rained a cold misty rain all Saturday, and Sunday, Mom walked around with Pneumonia (granted, we didn't know it at the time!), nephew was sick, sister was coming down with the flu. But nothing stops us from hitting that HUGE used booksale where we stocked up on piles of books for the winter. Picture it... books, rain, umbrellas... all outdoors. The Fest has hundreds of arts and crafts vendors and of course I migrate toward all the pretty, glittery, shiny stuff. I LOVE fused glass pendants and handcrafted jewelry. I refrained from buying any more glass but I did buy a silver ring at the South American booth. It's really cool, it's a silver band with stars etched in, but the coolest part is that the inner ring of stars spins. (Say that fast five times!) That's all I bought this year, except for cinnamon roasted almonds, yum!



The parade is one of the longest parades around, almost 1.5 hours. It's also one of the best parades with all kinds of cool floats, groups, and marching bands. And of course flying tootsie rolls. We came home with a bag full of candy. I remembered to take some pictures this time. I LOVE my little camera, the pictures came out a lot better than I thought they would.











This was at the very end of the parade. I love the sacked out kid! It's how alot of us felt after the long day, but unfortunately, we had a 2 hour drive home!