One thing I’m learning for sure is that you can’t appreciate true happiness and joy as deeply if you haven’t experienced great sorrow and loss. And that sorrow and pain cloud has been hanging over our heads just like a nasty court case. (Ok, a nasty court case is hanging over our heads!) So, when nuggets of joy come our way these days, they are especially precious.

A couple of weekends ago, we joined others from the small town of our church (which has long since been swallowed by suburbia, but remains as a distinct town anyway), for their annual celebration. Our church participated by having music, a car wash, food, and a movie…and for the first time ever…a float in the town’s parade. What a fun event!

One of the other bloggers recently mentioned that fall reminds her of building homecoming floats. As a child of small town America, it reminds me of the same. I love parades and floats. My children, growing up in a major metropolitan area are subject to large city parades, but not to the home spun ones that I so cherished full of crepe paper streamers and Shriners’ noisy cars. This event reminds me of my own childhood.

Because our church was showing the Chronicles of Narnia as our movie, it was easy to decide Narnia as the theme of the float. KayKay quickly claimed the role of Aslan (the lion) as her own, wanting to portray the character on the float. One of the women from our church volunteered to create the costume. The float was to be surrounded by several children in soldier armor passing out popsicles to the crowd. LuLu announced her desire to walk in the parade, but didn’t want to be a soldier. She wanted to be…a fawn. Her favorite Narnia character is Mr. Tumnus, the fawn who is captured by the White Witch and later rescued by Aslan. Yikes, just how was mom going to make a fawn costume in a few short days.

To complicate the situation, LuLu wanted her dear friend from church to join her as a fawn, not as a soldier. The girl readily agreed, and suddenly mom had TWO fawn costumes to make. Some multi-colored brown fleece from the clearance rack did the trick, and along with sweatpants with tails, we added ears and little horns on their heads and Tumnus’ signature red scarves. They were darling. See the proof above.

But the magic of the day wasn’t just in the Narnia float, it was in what LuLu was able to accomplish. She walked in the parade, without parental support. She gathered with the other children at the beginning of the parade route and walked the whole way, despite lots of noise around her. We just watched her come down the street, waving and smiling. Then she stayed the rest of the day/evening at church for the various events. Since Super Dad and I were very involved in the events, LuLu had to participate in many of the kids things on her own. This level of independence was something that hadn’t worked for LuLu in the past, especially with so many sensory overwhelming things all around. She even listened to the band that played during the festival and made it all the way through that evening for the showing of Narnia.

We were totally exhausted after the big day…but it was a satisfied, happy, joyful exhaustion, knowing that on that day, LuLu experienced a red letter, (just like normal kids) day of fun!