Happy 4th!

Daisy liked the big pieces of paper we found in the basement.

 She liked all the markers, crayons, pencils and stickers too.

We drew things together.  

She drew me.  I drew her.  Socks wandered into the parade.

She added stickers.

 It turned out to be a very big picture and had to be held together with clips. Here's the message:

complete with fireworks!

The Unexpected Fourth

What an unexpected holiday...
didn't expect that the threatening thunderheads would turn into giant cotton puffs in a July blue sky so that Mimi and I could spend an hour or so paddling in the pool...
didn't expect that the Grillin' Guy would get so inspired that he'd do the whole dinner ..
didn't anticipate that the kids would figure out how to get ALL of us on Skype at the same time so we could all chat together...
and, even though Mimi gave everyone sparklers for Christmas, didn't expect her to show up at dusk to light ours...
all of which made for a serendipitously happy holiday!

The Fifth of July

Ahhh...the traditional Fourth of July holiday.... a nice hot day to play with fire
"Let them cook!" I say. ( I did my cooking the night before)

Soon a picnic is assembled.

There is a lot of interest in the good smelling food.

It is just as tasty as it smells.

Every bite is closely watched.

Not one dropped morsel reaches the floor.

After we eat, Granddad amuses us by showing off his newest artifact and telling its story.

What better finish to the day than a dip in the pool?
Wish you all could have joined us!

Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July, whenever you celebrated it.

Happy 4th

Sure it was raining - just a little - we were prepared for downpours.

A little rain didn't dampen the enthusiasm we had for the parade.

While three of us watched the parade, Sister Vacationeer got to ride on a float and be IN the parade. It was extremely exciting.


There she is! We yelled and cheered.

We were so excited we went on cheering for all the entries.

We even cheered the traditional end of the parade - the street sweeper.

Firecracker Fourth

The Junior Vacationeers were delighted to find out that they could play with fire on the Fourth of July.

They lit their sparklers from a candle
They created a lot of smoke
They were amazed to find that they were actually allowed to run with sticks and fire.
When it began to get dark we headed to the football stadium parking lot. Thousands of other people had the same idea. We sat around waiting for the action to start for hours. We watched the antics of other people's unsupervised children and listened to over-amplified sort-of-identifiable music from a band about a mile away.
The smart people came in after dark.

Finally there was a boom that shook the ground.

Finally! Fireworks!

oooh

aaah

BANG!

Happy Fourth of July to all!

Parade on the Fourth

Did we go to the annual Fourth of July parade in the pouring down rain? No....we're wimps. But our stay-at-home parade was just as much fun as the downtown one.

The first entry in our parade was The Four Guys Who Shop This three generational entry featured well-filled grocery sacks and a side trip to the hardware store.

It was followed by the floats.

The Peach Custard Pie float...

The Baked Bean float... and of course the Potato Salad float (not pictured).

Then came the marchers: rows of cornRanks of chipsAccompanied by the twirlers:

We could hardly wait for the twirlers to finish twirling so we could dip.

There were fireworks, of course...

oops! is that firework on the ground???

This was the stomping part of the parade.

The parade route was lined with condiments

And the eager on-lookers responded with oooooohs and aaaaahs as they reviewed the entries.Every entry was a winner in our Fourth of July Parade.