Happy, happy Fourth of July! I realize that it’s now the 7th of July, with the 8th approaching rapidly, but alas, I will write a Happy Fourth of July post tonight. I have many more posts in my head, but life keeps getting in the way. Sometimes I have to resign myself to living life, unblogged.

Anyway, we had a great holiday! We started the day with a fun parade. Grampy Don drove up to join us in the festivities. It was HOT and sunny and we were all sweaty and happy.

Annual Old Fashioned 4th Of July

Fun with reflections while waiting for the parade to begin.

Another pose he suggested :)

Waiting, waiting...

Eve loved this guy! He kept high-fiving her as he went past.

A high-tech NICU float...

and cows...

and construction vehicles. We get everything in this parade! :)

After the parade we walked around the post-parade festivities for awhile then headed down to our local library to check out their cake decorating contest. All the local towns are celebrating their 250th birthdays so there were lots of festivities this year. I wanted to enter a cake in the contest but I didn’t get it together in time, so I definitely wanted to see what was entered. It was fun. We hung out for awhile and the kids patiently waited to eat cake :)

Cakes

This little girl made the pink lady bug cake for the "Under 16" category. She won 2nd prize.

The kids waited patiently for the cakes to be cut. Fortunately we were in a library and they were exhausted so much of their waiting involved sitting and reading books :)

There were some fancy cakes there.

Their patience was rewarded, with piece of pink ladybug cake! Yum!

By the time we were done with the cake it was well past lunchtime. We headed home for a quick bite and some much needed rest time. For all of us!

After quiet time we packed up for the fireworks! This year we went to the local event (somehow we’ve always missed it in years past) so Alan and Lex drove the car down, loaded with our picnic supplies, and Eve, Grampy Don, and I all walked. It was great. Next year I think we can walk home too, but I was worried about getting everyone home after such a long day. I think I would have been carrying half of them! :)

We had a picnic, ran and ran and ran, and then ate some ice cream. It was fun. It was so hot and humid that the poor kids had sweat running down their necks. Whenever they got close to me I wiped them down with a wash cloth. They did great though and we all had fun. The fireworks were absolutely amazing! I’m not sure if it was their normal show or something special for the 250th, but either way, it was a great show!

We did a lot of running. We brought a frisbee and some balls and had a great time!

Eve took a break from running to watch the clouds with Grampy Don.

Grampy Don apparently makes a good seat. :)

I was hoping to get a cool picture of the glow bands on our heads, but it didn't work without the flash and with the flash we got this. Oh well. Pretty girls anyway.

One thing I really liked about the evening was seeing a bunch of people we know. Both kids saw classmates (one girl ran over to Lex, gave him a huge hug, then ran away!), and we saw Eve's old daycare teachers, and one of her preschool teachers. That girl had a bunch of sparklers and brought them over for Lex and Eve to try. It was so nice of her and the kids loved them.

After the show Alan walked home while the rest of us piled in the car. We don’t have enough room for five people, but he got home well before us anyway. My five minute drive took 38 minutes! Gotta love fireworks traffic.

This is just a sweet photo from the next day.

Reading plant books on the porch.

We also made awesome red, white, and blue scones that I wanted to blog about, but not tonight. Soon. I hope. They were super yummy! :)