July 4, 2012

Our 4th of July would not of been complete without first visiting our 4th of July parade.

This year was fun and not fun for one reason. The Husband was in the parade.

Which was fun for us to see him in it. But not as fun to be me against them during the hour of waiting for it to start. Then still me against them throughout the parade while we lost that bit of shade we were enjoying.

Even so it had it’s perks.

It’s not hard to feel a sense of patriotic pride as the parade begins with so many servicemen and women marching past. It’s my favorite part and I feel that swell of gratitude to live in such a place as this.

The kids loved the band, and the horses and the clown that drives the tiny car. They especially loved seeing their dad driving a truck. The Boy was so excited he ran over to a lady sitting nearby, that works at his school, just so he could point out that his dad was behind the wheel.

But mostly they loved all the free candy. And cold water (all the sudden the water I brought with us had gone bad, or something).

I will say that I missed the free hot dog from last year. Just didn’t seem the same without it.

The rest of the day was spent cooking and decorating for our little 4th of July shin-dig.

We had invited a few friends over for some food and fireworks.

The food was fabulous the fireworks, epic.

As they always are.

Little Miss was making me extremely nervous as she wanted to be all up in the fireworks. I spent most of the night wrestling with her. Which isn’t as fun as it sounds.

The Boy got a small burn on his foot from one of the sparklers. He was deeply offended. But at the same time learned his lesson. He wanted nothing to do with them after that. Until the end when he consented to help his dad with a couple.

Miss Thing waved a few sparklers around and then she was done. With a capitol D. She isn’t one for loud noises. Which is strange considering how loud she can get. She spent most of her time inside. She wouldn’t even watch from the window at my suggestion. That’s how offensive the whole scene was to her.

It really was a wonderful day.