The 4th of July

Anyone who knows me knows that the 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays.  It's just fun.  It's spirited...patriotic...sunny...and best of all:  you don't have to buy something for anyone.  Makes it right up there with Thanksgiving in my book!  :)

Anyway - typically we go to the 4th of July parade in the morning followed by a big court-wide party in the afternoon/early evening.  Sadly, the parade was cancelled due to budget cuts so we had to figure out something else to do.  I always wanted to do a bike parade - so after talking to my neighbor, we decided we'd get stuff for the kids to decorate their bikes.  Little did I know that there is a bigger bike parade that's leaves our local park at 9:30 on that morning.  PERFECT!  We not only had a destination for our parade but there would be others there as well!

Here are few shots of the kids decorating their bikes in the garage and showing them off the day before:

And off for the park the next morning (July 4th).

M (our neighbor) and I took the kids over to the park - thank goodness he was there.  Ryan and I have never ridden to the park on his bike and he needed a bit more help than I could give him.  Natalie was a trooper too - her stroller was blinged out as well!

Sadly as the parade finally got going, Ryan was pretty wiped out.  We made it out of the park and across the street before he realized he was ready to head home.  We were about half way home when we were "saved" by M's wife: J.  She happened to see us (me) struggling with the stroller, the bike and Ryan. (He was too tired to ride so he was walking).  She picked up Ryan and the bike and took them home.

All the kids were SUPER excited to get home from the parade to find that the waterslide had been delivered and set up.  Ryan was so excited that he apparently got in the pool part in his clothes....and went down the slide soon after!

He was SO excited - this is near the end of the day - he was telling me how much he loved the slide!

'Natalie just chillin with Momma!

Tent City

And finally - a video of Ryan's first time up the slide.  It got a lot slippery as the day went on. (We were the first people to ever use this slide - it was brand new).

And for comparison, a SHORT video from the end of the day.

Ryan did GREAT! I never saw a kid have so much fun. He was on that slide ALL day! He was so worn out by NOON that he went down then for a nap. I got him up at 2:00 and he was ready for another nap at 6:00 (which he didn't get). After Ryan's nap, he had to wear a shirt. He was getting too banged up climbing up the slide (and falling back down it).

Natalie did awesome too. Hung out with me in the shade. Tolerated the evening fireworks and the heat of the day.

By far one of my favorite 4th of July memories. Love this holiday!