The 4th on the 5th...or something like that.

I just downloaded a few hundred pictures to my computer. As I contemplated posting them in order of occurrence, the thought crossed my mind that you probably aren't going to be interested about the 4th of July come September when I finally catch up...hey, you probably aren't even interested in the 4th today...but here it is anyway. Earlier photos are just going to have to wait.

This marked the 4th year that our family paired up with my sister's family and participated in our town's Independence Day Children's Parade. The idea is that you decorate your bike, wagon, stroller, motorized Jeep, or whatever and walk a couple of blocks with your kids, while pretending not to melt. Then you find a shady spot at the end to enjoy hotdogs, popcorn and lemonade while trying to convince your kids that although the bounce house slide is white, it will surely burn their backside all the way down.

Last year's celebration can be found here. Thank God I wasn't blogging the previous year...when we attended two days prior to having Jade. My Old Navy t-shirt just didn't do justice for my belly that year. (Oh, my! I just went to grab the link for that post. Lo and behold, I had gone back and scanned in pictures of my pregnant self for that post. Why, oh why?!?)

This year we didn't stay long because Jade's party followed the parade. I will be rethinking that for future years. Nothing like greeting guests while completing drenched in sweat and smelling your absolute finest.

Here is our day in pictures:

Little Sis in her red and blue. Never mind the fact that she wanted to wear sister's yellow flipflops.

Big sister ready to go.

Doing a little decorating.

3 cousins on the stairs.
The family.
Heading to the starting line-up.

Kelly and Avery getting pics before the sweat started dripping. Who am I kidding? That started on the way from the door to the car.

Sisters.

Waiting in the shade before the signal to begin.

And we're off.

I wish I could have fit in the wagon. Jerry is glad I didn't.

The grandparents reluctantly came out of the shade too.

We weren't the only ones enjoying the 101 degree heat.

I'm sure Jade was wishing she had a thumbsicle.

Later my mom said, "Well, Kerry, I'm glad I got to experience this with you guys...ONCE".

At least we weren't wearing spray painted fur.

Jade cooling off Papa with some ice water.

She got such a kick out of dripping water on his face and legs.

We headed home on a shady trail.

And Jade traded her thumb for a bottled water.

Hey, she's an aging woman...staying hydrated is important to ward off those wrinkles.

Hello there.

Wow. This week flew by.

I was reminded tonight by my one faithful blog reader, my mom, that I hadn't posted all week. She had been hoping to see pictures of a special wedding we were a part of last weekend. Oh yes, those pictures and tons of other ones are all awaiting download. Multiple posts are swimming in my head, but we've been too busy actually swimming and living life to pause and record it.

Round 3 of swimming lessons are over for Lily. I broke my own rule though and purchased 4 private lessons. I know, I know. I said I was ready for a break. But I can see a glimmer of hope in her and feel like we should capture the momentum. Shoot, we've been at this since January, whats a few more dollars and days now?

We spent the morning at the pool as a family today and she was gaining confidence by the minute. Jade was the superstar though...that child is fearless. We had so much fun.

Tomorrow it is off to the town's children's parade and festivities and then back home for Jade's second birthday party. My baby will be two on Monday. *tear*

It will be a simple Winnie the Pooh party with some backyard water balloon fun. My Mom and Jerry are really hating me now for wanting to do the water balloons. So far my excuse for not joining them has worked. I seriously CANNOT tie a balloon...not even a regular balloon...much less a water balloon.

So I am paying my mom and her sore fingers back with this little post. Thanks for all your help Mom!

I am going back to living life...here's to getting it all recorded later! Enjoy your holiday!

A Walk Down Independence Lane

Since moving to the town where my sister and niece live, we have a great 4th of July tradition. This is the third time we have participated in the town's Children's Parade on Independence Day.

Thankfully Kelly had gone the year before we moved here to learn all the details. Otherwise, I'm sure we would have shown up with our lawn chairs and candy bags to watch the parade go by and catch some loot.

This is a different type of parade. Hundreds of kids decorate their bikes, scooters, motorized kid jeeps, etc with all sorts of red, white and blue garb. And then in our case, the parents of babies and toddlers decorate the family wagon, stroller or baby jogger. Then you take a short walk down the parade route (which is actually on our street) while the spectators throw candy at you.

The best part is the destination. The town has bounce houses, magicians, music and other entertainment set up for everyone to enjoy. Free hot dogs, lemonade and popcorn abound. There's also a huge pond with plenty of hungry ducks awaiting. It's always fun running into friends and neighbors and sweating together for a bit.

It's also fun to see how the cousins have changed from 2006 til now.

Lily and Avery in 2006:

I was still speaking in terms of months for Lily's age. She was just 21 months. Look how tiny her pigtails were.

4th of July 2007:

We got smart and got a shade canopy.

Jade celebrated as well...from the womb. Getting some tummy love from Lily and Avery.
Why did I agree to pose for this profile pic just 2 days before delivering?

2008 Highlights from this morning:



Today was really fun. HOT, yet fun. Here is a slide show with some more pics:

Towards the end of the event we set out for our wagon to load 'em up and head 'em out. It was gone though. We knew it had to be an honest mistake at such a family friendly event. We were hopeful anyway. You can see from the slide show that there were only about 567 red Radio Flyer wagons with shade canopies and decorations.

Jerry went hunting it down and I had them make an announcement over the PA system. We were starting to get hot and worried. I was hoping that the family that had mistaken it for theirs wasn't anything like us.

I can guarantee you that the decorated wagon will be riding around in the back of the van for weeks. Then when it is taken out, it will sit in our garage...completely decorated for the next several months. It would honestly take us a long time to figure out that we had taken someone else's wagon.

Thankfully they were a bit more conscientious than we are...it suddenly appeared out of no where. I was just thankful that the cries and shouts from the girls finally stopped. Something about hearing, "why did someone steal our wagon?" and it's variations said over and over and over again at a family event was bringing a little too much attention to the situation!