All American Day

The 4th of July is always a favorite holiday at our house especially now that we have little ones to put on a show for.  In addition to our annual party with friends this year I even stepped it up a notch and branched out to entertainment outside the house.  In the morning I took the kids to the parade downtown Bothell.  The kids had only been to one parade before and since that parade took place at night in the rain over in Chelan for Winterfest, I decided that it was time for the real deal.  Then I heard that there was a kiddie parade before the real parade that we could be in it.  So off we headed after our neighbor helped us stuff the kids wagon in the front seat of my car.  We got a great parking spot and got to the kiddie parade right on time.

You can tell by their faces they are loving this.  They actually did perk up a bit when the parade started because there were so many people watching and cheering and then the other kids that were in the parade started throwing candy.  Ooops... Mom missed that memo that we were suppose to bring some to throw.  Next time, I promise.  Things were still good since I was picking up a few pieces of spare candy from the street and throwing it into their wagon as we walked along the parade route.  Then we were called out.  One of the kids watching the parade was watching for candy and when he saw Kenzie and Ben he yelled out to his friend, "Hey those kids aren't throwing the candy they are just eating it!" Busted.

As we walked along the parade route the sides of the street were packed and I realized that there was no way that we were going to get a good spot to watch the real parade.  I also realized that it would take forever for all these people to get back to their cars and drive away and that I didn't have any lunch with us and candy wasn't going to cut it for lunch.  So I did the only thing that made sense, I turned the wagon around when I got to the end of the parade route and walked back a ways towards my car until I could cut through the crowd and then I told the kids they did so great in their first parade and it was time to go.  We headed back to our car in peace and had no trouble making it home in time for lunch.  Next time I'll plan better and we'll try to do the real parade.

My cuties on the way back to the car.  Luckily we parked right by a fun park so we got to play for a bit before making our escape.

After we came home from the parade we started in on party prep and had a great time with friends and family over celebrating.  Cousin Claire and McKenzie, our beautiful girls of summer.  Loving spending time together swinging on the hammock in the backyard.  Classic summertime!

Ben and Claire picking out what they wanted Matt to light off next.  I'm not sure who has more fun Matt or the kids with this holiday.

The house all decked out and ready to celebrate.  The best decoration turned out to be the sunshine which we hadn't seen in way too long. 

As I was decorating the house with our flag, the banners on the porch and lanterns on the garage our neighbors came down to put up some flags in their driveway.  After they headed home I told Matt we needed to get out some flags and step up our decorations a bit next year.  Matt didn't like the idea of waiting until next year so he kicked it up a notch for this year.  It made a big bang in the neighborhood when he blew up the giant inflatable firework keg.

Our little firework Ben sitting with his blanket, another classic sign of the 4th of July in Seattle, helping Matt pick out the fireworks for the show.

Such a great night and as always we add new little pieces to our annual tradition of celebrating our countries' birthday!