July 4th

We awoke early to eat breakfast and get ready to head out to Arlington for their annual parade. Tyson made smiley face pancakes for everyone, complete with red and blue fruit. Independence Day has to be my favorite holiday, or it is at least tied for me with Christmas. I love the parades, the fireworks, the patriotism. It's a lot of fun and we are developing fun traditions with the kids.
After breakfast we drove out to Arlington, where we met Julie and her family to watch the parade. We actually missed a good portion of it. It seems to take 3 times as long to get anywhere when you have young kids. It was just as well though as it was over 100 degrees outside and extremely humid. We were there just long enough to get a feel for the parade and then it was over and we traipsed back home.
After everyone took naps, we headed out to our friend Peggy's house in the country for BBQ dinner and to set off small fireworks and sparklers. We took the kids to look at some of her animals. The donkeys came right up to us and let us pet them. The kids favorite animal was a miniature horse named "Miss Texas". She followed us around and ate right out of the kids' hands.Check out Tyson's shirt up close, then take a look at this link. Our friend Sean started a really cool service project and the article describes it well.

After the kids had their fill of the animals, Grandma Connie took them for a ride on one of Peggy's golf carts. LittleMan paid close attention and tried to take himself for a ride when Connie declared that they were finished. He knew how to turn the key and everything, so we had to take the keys and hide them.Some of her neighbors bought some good sized fireworks and set them all off. We got to watch another free fireworks show. What a difference a day makes. This time LittleMan was captivated by the lights and not the least bit bothered by the sound. Granted these weren't quite as loud as the ones from the day before, but he didn't mind at all. He kept saying "Fireworks go BOOM!" and clapping after each one.