Fourth of July!

The 4th of July celebration in our town is a big deal. And it is so fun. We woke up early to finish making a family flag to carry in the parade. We had the kids draw pictures of themselves to sew on our flag.Elora decided that rather than marching in the parade, she would prefer riding with our neighbor in her float. She still carried our family flag so we could be represented in the parade.Oliver rode in a wagon with his friend Aidan and was super excited to throw candy to everyone (and to eat candy throughout the parade…)Elora was a bit shy during the parade and hid behind the family flag, but we caught a little glimpse of her happily waving her American flag.This was the winning float in the parade.Have I mentioned that I love parades in our town? So fun to see all the floats people came up with.And no Glendale parade would be complete without a demolition derby car.They closed down the highway for our little parade. Here are some of our friends marching in the parade down Highway 89.And here are all the angry tourists that had to wait for the sheriff escort to bring them through town once the parade was over!!! We waved at some of them, but they didn’t seem real happy about the delay…Marion loved watching the parade and waving her little flag.There were games at the park after the parade and a bounce house. Oliver was a little scared until he convinced our sweet friend McCrae to bounce with him. Elora LOVED the bounce house.There were races for all the different age groups of children. Marion was in the crawling bracket, and we got her to crawl by having Elora wave a lollypop out for her.She was pretty excited about her prize!Oliver is super fast and won his race by a lot! He was sooooo excited to race and really wanted to jump in every race after his too. I am not sure if he liked the running, or if he was just happy to win a lollypop and wanted another one.Elora also did well in her race. It was a little confusing because she was supposed to hop for the first half and run for the second. She got so excited to go that she bolted out running. Luckily our friend who was in charge of the races called for a do-over when she saw how bad Elora felt for forgetting to hop… She did great the next time around!Our favorite game of the day was the “throw the chicken in a pot” game. Awesome. Oliver loved the rubber chicken.There was a mini bounce house over by the games and Oliver thought this was great! Especially since he had the whole little house to himself with no one to bounce around and knock him over.He also really loved this game where he got to catch duckies in a net. It is funny because he played a similar game at a Halloween carnival last year in Vienna and he loved it then too. I think he remembered, because as soon as he saw the little ducks he went running over to get them!There was a mechanical bull which was the hit of the party. Elora saw everyone riding and was super excited to try it. We knew she probably wouldn’t like it, but she was determined to try and we let her decide… Here is her face when it started…And then…The end of the ride! Not so happy about this one. Too funny.We went to our friends, Hal and Mercy’s house to hang out and shoot bow and arrows. I have never been great at this, but after a few tries I sort of got the hang of it.Chris helped Oliver shoot and he thought it was great fun! He kept asking to have more turns.The target Hal has is a deer. When Oliver hit it the first time he said, “Bad deer!”We went to a dinner for the whole town at the park that night. Marion thought the food looked really good. When I was being served she grabbed a huge chunk of meat right off the serving spoon and shoved it in her mouth. Then when I was eating, she crawled over my leg and face planted in my plate. She seemed pretty proud of herself and kept coming back for more. (And yes, she did get a little sunburned. I am so not good at this fair-skinned child thing, Elora and Oliver never burn!)Elora’s little friend Shayne came to sit with us during dinner, and Marion had a great time with her!This is my friend Heidi and she was giving the girls bouncy rides.Marion finally fell asleep after all that excitement!Elora won a prize in the raffle – Otter Pops! As you can see, she was sooooo happy.Marion having fun with Daddy after dinner.Elora and her friend Sarah during the national anthem. There was a nice presentation that evening about the heroes who have protected our nation and made it what it is today. All the ceremonies were dedicated to Brian Harris, the first deputy ever killed in Kane County. He was shot last year, and he has been very missed. It was a very emotional but inspiring evening as we heard from different speakers.Oliver went to play with his friend Maddie at the playground just before the fireworks started. We ended up taking the kids home and letting them watch the fireworks out our window just before they went to bed. We have never had fireworks in our town before, so it was a special treat to get to see them. The kids loved it. I am so grateful to everyone who planned such a fun and special day to celebrate our country’s independence.