4th of July Festivities

We have had such a busy and fun week. Yesterday we drove about an hour to meet up with Terrence and some other friends and see some fireworks in a neighboring city. We went to this particular fireworks display three years ago and were impressed by it. We tried to go again last year, but it was postponed due to rain and we didn't make it to the rescheduled event (which was postponed again, so it wouldn't have mattered). I thought it was neat that the city had their fireworks display a day early so that their fire department and city employees could have the day off on Independence Day.
The first time that we went was nice, but this year was so much better. The event was at a public park near the new fire station. They had free snow cones for everyone, a free water balloon slingshot-wars booth, a couple of rock climbing walls (I'm not sure if those cost money or not), and a children's train. They also had a bunch of bounce houses set up on the baseball field, and a pitching booth where you could clock the speed of your baseball pitch. We didn't even make it to most of the booths because the kids ran around and played on the playground. There was also a live band, who mostly played covers of 60's songs, which seemed to please everyone. Dickie's BBQ had a huge tent and they were selling a brisket sandwich (or a hotdog), chips, and a drink for $2.00. You can't beat that.
Tyson thought it would be fun to get our 11 month old hopped up on sugar. He had a love/hate relationship with this snow cone. I think it felt good on his gums (he's cutting another tooth, that's the fifth one he's gotten in less than a month) but he seemed shocked by the cold every time he took another bite.

When it got dark, the band wound down and one of the performers and his daughter sang "The Star-Spangled Banner". Then the pyrotechnics started! I got to play with the dedicated "fireworks" setting on my camera. I think it would have worked better if I'd brought a tripod, but I took a couple of cool shots. When we brought BittyBit when she was six months old, she screamed the entire time and I had to take her into a friends van and cover her ears and sing to her until the entire thing was over. I don't really blame her, because it is a loud and somewhat sensory overloading experience. LittleMan is a little older than his sister was when she first saw fireworks, but he loved them! She still didn't like them when she was a year and a half but he sat quietly and took it all in. It is amazing how different their personalities are.
We didn't make it home until midnight (we had to drive back to the friends' house to get Terrence's keys, which he'd left on the counter, then drove him home so he could get some clothes for the next day and follow us to our house). The kids stayed awake almost the entire drive back. Considering they are usually in bed by 8pm, this was an amazing feat. We were so tired, but we woke up early to attend our church's 4th of July breakfast and kids' parade. We stuffed ourselves full of pancakes, sausages, fruit, and juice/milk, then headed outside for the parade. All of the kids brought their bikes, tricycles, scooters, rollerblades, or ride-on toys and decorated them. (Well, we didn't decorate our daughters, we had too much going on the day before - maybe next year?) Then they made a couple of laps around the parking lot while all the parents snapped pictures and cheered.
My daughter's friend C. had some seriously cool blue hair. Afterwards Tyson, Terrence, and I packed up the kids and headed home to clean up the house and get ready for a BBQ at our house. Connie brought over her grill - ours is just a tiny one, not big enough to cook for more than a couple of people. Tyson grilled burgers, hotdogs, and steaks, while Brittany and BittyBit dug for buried treasure in the backyard. Note the giant hole there, that's where Tyson started to dig a hole to plant a new tree a couple of weeks ago. He wasn't able to go get the tree that day (it's free, but we have to dig it out of a friend's yard) so now we just have a giant hole. But apparently the kids who lived here before we bought the house liked to bury matchbox cars, so it turned out to be great fun. Connie also brought over her ice cream maker, so we had homemade ice cream after lunch.Buried Treasure!LittleMan didn't like for his knees to touch the grass, so he moved around in a bear crawl for most of the day.After Rex left with Brittany, and Connie went home, the kids and I took a nap, while Tyson and Terrence took a road trip to pick up some attic foil that we purchased online the day before. That is going to be their project for tomorrow.