4th of July!

Are you detecting a theme here? That it takes me approximately 3 weeks to get around to completing just about anything these days? So….here you go, pictures from the 4th of July, 3 weeks later.

The night before the 4th, we always decorate our wagon for our neighborhood 4th of July parade – and Macy was more excited that ever this year about decorating, given that she was moving on from the wagon….on up to decorating her own bike, like all of the other “big kids” in the neighborhood. Exciting stuff.

But our fun-filled, decorating, flag-waving, “grandma & grandpa are here!”, race to the front of the neighborhood to start the parade morning, seemed to be anything but fun for the girls as the day started out.. After both sets of grandmas and grandpas arrived, we took the girls out to the garage to get ready to go – and Morgan started crying and trying to climb out of the wagon. (you’ll notice the less than excited look on her face below)

Then, after pushing her bike past a few houses, the formerly excited Macy decided that she didn’t want to ride her bike, she wanted to be little again and join Morgan in the wagon (tight quarters these days for both of them, mind you) and she started whining, crying and carrying on for the entire walk to the front gate, and quickly discarded her bike in the neighbors driveway. (insert mom pulling her hair out at this point...the one and only happy picture with the bike is below)

So, we eventually make it to the front gate, and find our way to the pack of the large group of other happy, exited kids. Meanwhile, Morgan was still crying intermittently, trying to unhook herself to climb out of the wagon and Macy was whimpering, refusing to push, pull, ride, or consider doing any of the above. Finally, the parade began, and it seems that the shared excitement of all of the other kids seemed to help lift the mood. And of course, it’s always exciting to have both sets of grandparents cheering you on!


And finally, once we reached the end of the parade……Macy quickly remembered part of the reason she's always been so excited about the parade -there’s nothing like a good ol’ fashioned otter pop to add a permanent smile to your face for the morning.

So, with red otter pop dripping from our happy faces, we made our way back home, and enjoyed a fun rest of our day, beachcombing during the very low tides, and barbequing with Grandma & Grandpa Miller. We also congregated with several neighbors in our driveway for a fireworks show – with our kids being ages 9 mos., 16 mos., 19 mos., and 4 ½ and 5. Can you say “ground bloom flowers”? Actually, the dads were not willing to keep the show on the ground, so we learned the art of “stick your fingers in your ears!” and Macy was seen peering out of the office window during one particularly loud display. We all ended up having a great day though, despite our rough start!