Happy 5th of July!

Since I missed the US Independence day and Canada Day… happy 5th of July to everyone!

We had a great day yesterday! Got up and got ready for the parade, where we sat and had breakfast. McDonalds, you know – nothing but the best for me and mine! Kyan totally didn’t understand why we were sitting on blankets (laid over a tarp, darn wet ground!) on the side of the road, but he certainly thought it’d be fun to run into traffic! Luckily, he has a cute little monkey backpack with a long tail that doubles as a safety harness, so I put that on him and Turkey Face was as safe as can be! He would get a little mad when he’d reach the end of the line, but since we were passing the tail to whoever was closest to where he wanted to go, he had a pretty large area to travel in. And he couldn’t get in the road!

Anyway, the parade was so much fun! We yelled for candy for the kids, got all kinds of useless business cards and pamphlets, and only got sprinkled on a little bit. Not too bad – plus the rain kept it fairly cool. Much better than the sweltering heat I usually associate with the parade.

After the parade, we ran home to change and clean up – Jaben was covered in mud - to go to my cousin’s house for a cookout. I hadn’t been there before so I was excited to see her new house! And oh is it a cute house! They’ve got tons of land – I had visions of wooden play areas with vast sandboxes….. * sigh * I think they’re going to have a garden or something? I think I heard her husband say something about sweet corn. The weather actually held out pretty well for most of the time. We were able to eat outside at their pretty, new picnic table and everything. It was really nice.

Of course it * did * eventually start raining, and so most of the adults went in the house while some of us hid in the garage. With the kids. My boys and my (other) cousin’s son. Well actually the kids weren’t in the garage long – they went to play in the rain. The 3 of them had a blast!! They got soaked, Xavier got covered in mud – but they absolutely, completely enjoyed themselves! I will admit, I wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of them playing in the rain at first, but I got over it when I looked at their little faces. Jaben was actually enjoying himself for once (anyone want a moody 10 yr old??), and the little guys seemed to think they were getting a special treat – which they were. So it was fine.

It wasn’t long after that tho, that I had to change Kyan into his dry clothes and we headed out. Jaben only had a dry swimsuit with him (in case we decided to let them run thru sprinklers – not to be confused with sprinkles), so he went shirtless, but it was plenty warm enough for that.

When we got home, we turned on the AC and had some much needed downtime before heading off to the fireworks! We weren’t totally sure they’d still have them, given all the rain, but since it was clearing up and we were used to being rained on by that point, we went ahead out.

And I’m so glad we did! Not only did they still hold the fireworks, they were wonderful!! They had lots of little ones close to the ground – which were awesome from our place down front. And no worries about Kyan being afraid – he slept thru the whole thing! Of course he woke back up the second I put him in his stroller to go home (little booger!) but I was able to enjoy the fireworks without worrying about him being frightened. And I was able to watch Jaben’s face and enjoy his reaction – which was just an added bonus.

All in all, it was a very nice 4th of July. I would prefer to have a sunny day, but the rain was nice enough to pace itself and only fall when it was convenient for us, so I can’t complain. Hope you all had a happy, fun, and safe 4th!