Each year in our small town of Ivins, we have a parade to celebrate Pioneer Day. Pioneer day is a religious holiday for the LDS church celebrating when the pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. I am in the primary of our ward unit and we are always in charge of the float. I volunteered to create our float this year (partly because I wanted it to be cute and fun, partly because I'm crazy and mostly because I also like to do a float for the 4th of July in Kanarraville.) So, to kill to birds with one stone, I came up with an idea that would work for both parades.
For the 4th of July in Kanarraville, our float theme was "America is Sweet."
The first part of the float was the giant suckers made from pool noodles. To make the suckers, we took the pool noodles and glued them into a spiral using hot glue. It took two people... one to hold and one to glue. Them, I drilled a hole in the noodle large enough to hold a pvc pipe. We stuck the pvc pipe in the noodle. Then, we covered the suckers with cellophane and tied a ribbon on them.
The second part of the float was the large hard candies. Those were easy. We just bought the paper chinese lanterns and wrapped them with cellophane with a tie on each end.
I ordered float fringe for the bottom of the float, but it did not arrive in time for the 4th of July... too much procrastination. So, my cousin cut crepe paper and taped it along the bottom.
We had the kids sit on hay bales. I covered them with some table cloths so they would not be too scratchy. I just happened to have several table cloths that were bright and colorful and had candy and balloons on them. It was from fabric I had purchased for $1 at a yard sale.
Here is the float for the 24th of July (Pioneer Day). The theme was "Our Pioneer Heritage is SWEET."
I think it turned out cute and ended up being kind of fun... I guess. But, I'm not volunteering next year... and our kids are just riding scooters or bikes in the Kanarraville parade:)
