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It was a busy morning at our house before the Parade. It started off with breakfast for 23. What I had hoped to be a peaceful start to our thrilling day was instead chaotic and in reality had us all eating in shifts while intense work on our cannons was being done. Did you hear that? Cannons. Yes, we made air cannons that shot the candy out into the crowd. We had a few problems getting the generator to power all of the cannons, so things were a little tense for awhile. After a trip to Home Depot we had things under control.

The cannons were made from PVC pipe. Once they were made we (okay I had VERY LITTLE to do with the cannons —-but a huge shout out to Blake, Mark and George!) inserted them each into a carpet tube. The guys built a wooden stand to set the cannon on and then we (again I am using ‘we’ very loosely) nailed huge cardboard wheels to each side. We painted them and we had a Revolutionary War cannon—that worked!

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We have had so much fun with the cannons. There was tons of “testing” going on around here. For the parade the cannons only needed about 15lbs. of pressure but my boys (I will include my husband in “boys”) quickly figured out that at about 100 lbs of pressure a potato could be launched OVER our neighbor’s house!

We used cardboard carpet tubes to construct the fort. The walls are supported by a brace that was screwed to the tubes. All cutting was done with a chop saw as these tubes are hefty! Flags were painted on cardboard than attached to the fort. The boys all wore baseball pants. Hot glued strips of white felt made the criss-crossed belts. Cardboard was cut into a buckle shape, painted and then hot glued to the boys’ dress shoes. One of the biggest feats of the whole float was getting 9 boys to all wear polyester baseball pants and dress shoes. A few of the boys wore three pointed hats while others sported a bandanna.

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Mary’s group had a really great float also. It was colorful and fun. Their beach theme had them all lounging about sitting in front of a backdrop of fabulously painted surfboards.

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They did a great job and I am trying to be very gracious when I say, “Isn’t it lovely that we TIED for first place.” Hmmmmm………


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Comments

  1. Did you get a reply? I had the same 2 questions.
    1) instructions & supplies needed to make the cannon

    2) what type of candy? Hard candy individually wrapped?

  2. oh forgot to comment on the Fort Sherwood sign

    I used to live on Sherwood Drive haha

  3. you were completely robbed!:(

    WOW I’m so impressed yet again lol

    I also just noticed this was 2007 haha

    I have to go see what you came up with for 2009!

    Carpet tubes!! who knew? lol

    y’all did! Well, when I was raising my brothers, I used to save the HUGE very hard/sturdy cardboard tubes from our saran wrap at the restaurant I managed..The art class always loved them for building castles, etc.

    reduce, reuse, recycle! woot lol

    fantastic blog you have! i just voted too!

  4. I WAS LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO SHOOT CANDY OUT OF FOR THE 4TH OF JULY THIS YEAR. THE THEME FOR OUR PARADE IS FIRECRACKERS, FLAGS, AND FUN. I THOUGHT WE COULD MAKE A FIRECRACKER TO SHOOT OUT CANDY. I LOOKED FOR YOUR INSTRUCTIONS BUT DID NOT FIND THEM. COULD YOU PLEASE SEND THEM TO ME. ALSO WHAT KIND OF CANDY DID YOU USE? THANKS
    JACKI#2 AT ONEIDA VILLAGE THREE LAKES WI

  5. shut UP! that sounds so cool! had i found this darn blog a week earlier i could have seen for myself! which parade was that? gotta love a fellow t-town blogger!

  6. You were robbed!!! Your float was absolutely fantastic! Throwing candy is the funnest part of a parade, however to shoot it out of cannons, I can only imagine how fun that was. GREAT JOB! You are a mom who ROCKS!!

  7. But…but…but…your float was so much better! I have to wonder who was on the float voting committee! You made a great float…as usual! (I love them all…so very clever!)

  8. They don’t allow any throwing of candy at the parades around here. boo!!!! boo!!!

    My husband has a potato cannon that shoots pringles cans (it uses butane as fuel and piezo sparker from a barbeque to light it). My brother used a similar one to shoot confetti into the air at our wedding.

  9. THAT tied with CANONS that SHOOT CANDY!? WTF?! Well, you are totally in first place in my book. I don’t EVEN want to know how much that float cost! Some friends of mine are very big history buffs (well, the husband is) and they have a real live canon from the civil war…and it works. it’s awesome

    i’d rather have candy shot at me though!!

  10. What fun! And great memories your family will have of the annual 4th of July parade!

  11. Looks like a grand time was had by all.. Breakfast for 23? I’m lucky to get it out for 5. Is it the mom in me or did I instantly notice the baseball pants? *giggle*. But the whole float looks great!! Every year it gets better and better!!

    YAY for Candy Cannons!! We need to have creative floats done by the ‘locals’ here too.. Sad they only want ‘professional’ floats in the parades here 🙁

  12. So cute!! I am loving everything on your site. Great crafts–thanks! I was in dire need of an “appreciation gift” this coming up week and you have inspired me.

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