4th of July Traditions

A typical fabulous 4th of July again this year. We have pretty much the same routine every year. We decorate C's bike for the kids' parade in our old neighborhood. This is a cute little 4 block "parade" with wagons and scooters and bikes all covered with pinwheels and streamers. There are usually about 10 spectators throughout the route that happily wave at all the children and their trailing parents. This year I think there were 12 because my mom and grandma joined the cheering crowd. The "pace car" is a pickup truck with a brass band in it.

After the parade we all congregate at the park for a picnic (we potluck it with a half dozen other families) followed by face painting and good old fashioned 4th of July games (think potato sacks and lots of raw eggs). As you can see, C and his good friend A were quite an adorable team for the three-legged-race. The finished the first heat basically crawling and dragging each other (in opposite directions). But in the second heat they really had it down.
The highlight (in C's opinion) would probably be the pie eating contest. They get these delicious berry pies and C does a pretty great job (photos soon). Last year they let the little kids use thier hands and it was a lot more fun to watch. But it was still a kick.


After the picnic C had his nap until the neighbor boys just couldn't stand it any longer and came to wake him up. We joined their family for a BBQ dinner and some ground sparklers. They have three boys (5, 8, and 12) and two girls (2 and 3) and the kids ran wild for a bit. Then they all came over to our house to have some good clean sword fights.


At 10pm C and I headed off to watch the firworks set off over the bay. It was a really nice balmy evening so we went for a bit of a walk in search of a new favorite viewing spot. As the trees grow each year it gets a little harder to see. But we ended up right back in our usual locations. The left side of the backstop at this tiny little neighborhood playground (Carl Lobe Park). The show was wonderful as usual. And we crawled into bed at 11 and slept like babies (because we were beat, not because it was anything like quiet outside)

Boys in trees. B, A and C- good buddies since babyhood!