4th of July part three

After the movie we went back to our house to cool off and rest a bit. Doug really isn't into fireworks and didn't really want to go.

But I like fireworks and the girls had never gone to a fireworks display where you lay on the grass and hang out waiting for them to start so I really wanted to go. I thought about a few different places but since Thanksgiving Point is so close to our house I decided to go there and just deal with the traffic. 

My parents were fine with that so we left around 6:30 and got dinner to take with us. I pulled into a parking lot south of the barn and was surprised to see so many spots open. Most people were parked in the main parking lots like we did last time. So I got a spot just a few hundred feet from the gate to this grassy section. We found a huge spot when we got in that was kind of in a corner so there was hardly anyone around us and no one behind us and the girls had a great spot to play.

I gave them a box of Pop its. They had never done those before and loved them.

We had plenty of glow sticks on hand and I bought some sparklers from the dollar store. At first none of them would work but I tweaked them a bit and then they did.

We had a great time. The girls loved playing for the few hours leading up to the fireworks, the display was really fun, and when it was over we hurried to the van and got home in 15 minutes!

4th of July part two

We were planning a movie that afternoon so instead of having my parents drive all the way back to their house and then back north again, we invited them over for lunch. My mom wanted to get a shower and change so she did that at our house.

Our lunch set up.
I made firework sugar cookies, had plenty of treats around, hot dog buns, and drinks. My mom made corn on the cob, hot dogs, and brought chips. 

I also made this flag out of fruit. I tried to make a really cool layered drink with sprite zero, blue gatorade, and hawaiian punch that I saw on Pinterest but it didn't work. 

After lunch and resting up a bit we met my brother Brent's family at The District to see Despicable Me 2. We all loved it!

4th of July part one

To get ready for the fourth of July the girls and I painted our nails. I went with the flag look on my fingers and the alternating colors on my toes. Abi had alternating colors on hands and feet. Maddy had her fingers striped and toes alternating colors. The girls got a kick out of doing this.

I tried to do the girls hair in star shapes. Maddy's only lasted for an hour or so.

We left early to go to Provo. I wanted to watch the Freedom Festival parade and my mom was running in the 10K that goes along the parade route. We wanted to cheer her on and then my dad and mom would meet us after she was done.

Unfortunately we didn't get to see her. We got pretty close to the end but she must have ran past within a few minutes of us getting there. She did really well and got 2nd place in her age division!

Waiting for the parade to start...

There was a pre-parade full of companies handing out business cards. The girls got these fire hats from one of them.

I have to say that I thought it was going to be awesome to go to a bigger parade than the girls are used to... but they just weren't into it. They much preferred the small one in Wisconsin where they throw candy.

My parents met up with us a few minutes after the main parade began but we didn't stay for the whole thing because by this time it was starting to get hot, the girls were tired and not that interested in the parade, and I could tell Doug was getting to the end of his parade tolerance.

My mom had their breakfast and of course my girls wanted some...

Maddy loves her grandpa!

Our favorite part of any parade- the pipers!

Grandma let Abi wear her medal for a few minutes. She thought that was pretty cool.

Our Fourth celebration

We started out the morning making some fun foam crowns we saw in Family Fun. I loved the way they turned out. So cute! I had thought about getting the girls 4th outfits, or making some, like I usually do but then I noticed that these dresses that I love are red, white, and blue so we just had them wear them.

We went over to our church for the annual pancake breakfast put on by the scouts. It was fun... except for that moment when Doug was sitting down with his food and a glass of orange juice and I didn't see him, reached over to get the syrup for Abi and totally elbowed his cup. Orange juice everywhere!

They had tickets you could buy for the kids to play games. Abi really wanted to do this one. She tried twice but could never hit the ladder thing.

So she switched to beanbag toss...

Her last game was the ping pong on a spoon race. She did really well but then dropped it on her way back so she had to start over. It was pretty funny how she wanted to do the games the older girls were doing.

Doug and I had looked up the parade we usually go to online and found a page that said they did it on Saturday. This is what Abi looks forward to the most so we were trying to think of something fun we could do instead before telling her but then our friend Le Shel said that she had read that it was still yesterday and they had seen people setting up chairs. I was so grateful we talked about it in front of her because she was right!
We decided to set up chairs early too- we had never done that before. We rushed home and got a blanket and some chairs and took them over, setting them in a nice shady area right on the road.
When we went back over later they were still there and we were able to have a front row, shady spot. It was great!
I finally found out how to get Maddy to sit still for a few minutes. Stick her on a blanket surrounded by noise and lots of people with some grass to play with....

and then give her a lollipop! Abi had her first lollipop on the fourth of july at this age so I got Maddy the same kind and let her finally try one. She loved it.

Maddy didn't wear her crown for long but Abi wore it the whole time.

She perfected the wave and while the rest of us sat in the shade and relaxed, Abi was standing out in the sun waving for candy for most of the hour!

She even kept waving when no one was there!

We always get excited for the pipers. Doug is learning to play the bagpipes and would love to join on of the clubs when he gets good enough.

Maddy enjoyed watching all the bands go by the most.

At one point she decided she wanted to go sit on the curb next to daddy....

I was nervous for the Statue of Liberty and Uncle Sam on stilts. They were up so high. I couldn't help but wonder what they do if they fall over.

Maddy climbed up into one of the chairs and was being really quiet. I looked back and realized she had found one of Abi's suckers too. So, she was going back and forth between both hands.

We spent the rest of the day at home relaxing. Maddy loves to dump toys out of the baskets and sit in them so Abi decided to join in...

By the end of the day Maddy had developed a runny nose and a nasty little cough so I put her down to bed right after dinner and the rest of us waited a couple of hours to when it started getting a little darker and went outside to do sparklers, watch some of the fireworks going off in our neighborhood, and look for fireflies.

It was a great day! Happy fourth!