Fourth of July Festivities

Our Fourth of July day started off early with a walk halfway down the street to a bike decorating party at a neighbor's house.  If you are a regular reader, you might recall that each year our neighborhood blocks our street off from one end to the other, and all the kid in the neighborhood decorate their bikes, wagons, and other contraptions for a mass exodus down the street. Someone carries a boombox blasting patriotic music ahead of the crowd, and older residents wave excitedly at the kids from their lawn chairs on the side of the street.  Our kidlets wait ALL YEAR for the fourth of July.  They are so excited to be able to ride bikes on the street.

It was really fun to get together with neighbors BEFORE the parade this year.  All the kids were decorating machines.  Mr. SP strung blue ribbon all around his Big Wheel. He loves his big wheel.  The Banana choose pink ribbon to go around her baby doll stroller, along with a few red and white balloons.  

However, when we actually got down to the starting line for the parade, The Banana noticed that pretty much everyone was riding bikes.  She was in despair, always wanting to be like the big kids, so Dr. Peds had to make an emergency run down to the other end of the street to grab her scooter bike from home.  He got back just in time, and she insisted that he push the stroller while she rode the bike.  

Here's Mr. Sneaky Pants.  (Note that his tongue was once again stuck out in concentration).  He was up and down the street full throttle about 237 times, constantly in motion, not wanting to waste one second of riding time on the street while the barricades were still up.  

After the parade there was ice cream and cookies, and lots of visiting among neighbors before people eventually dispersed home.  

We jotted home and then back down the street and up the hill to have lunch with a few of the neighbors we know best.  All the kids involved played and played and played, and all the grown ups ate and talked and talked.  It was a super fun afternoon.  

After a refreshing late afternoon nap for the whole family, we grabbed peanut butter sandwiches and apples, and were off to downtown to view the magnificent, long fireworks display over the harbor.  The weather was amazing.  40,000 people were out next to the harbor in droves, the water filled with boats watching the sun set and getting ready for the explosions of color in the sky.  

Ironically, we ended up staking claim to a patch of grass right next to some MOPS friends, so a whole group of kids had a great time dancing to symphony music from the stage, climbing on rocks, and looking for early fireworks set off in the hillside neighborhoods behind us.  

We never know how our kidlets are going to react to fireworks.  Some years they love them.  Some years they are all crying hysterically.  It is totally unpredictable, and not necessarily related to their age and/or ability to reason that the fireworks are far, far away.  This year Sarah was gone, off to horse camp, Mr. Sneaky Pants was enthralled (although quite whiny and tired while he waited for them to start) and The Banana was calm and peaceful until the first big firework, whereupon she calmly, tightly covered her eyes with her hands and would under no circumstance watch anymore.  She wasn't worried.  She wasn't upset, she was simply in denial that there were any sparkles in the sky.  

It was a long, heavy walk back to our car (I had The Banana on my back) and then a quick trip home and off to bed for the kidlets.