I grew up an Air Force brat, and besides that the daughter of a singer in the Air Force Band. Needless to say, every Fourth of July we found ourselves at one concert or festival or another. It was a blast.
I remember games, and food, running around, sparklers and great concerts with my dad as the leading man.
My dad was a great entertainer, and even now I don't really enjoying going to concerts because no one is quite like him. One thing I don't remember about the over populated 4th of July shin digs we went to was the traffic. Maybe I was asleep by the time we left the parking lot, but as an adult I loathe the idea of sitting through fireworks and waiting with 17,000 other cars to get out on the same one lane road.
Seems like the next thing I should say about the holiday is Bah, Humbug! (Can you say that about anything other than Christmas?)
Despite my disposition we decided we would suck it out and let our girls experience the whole kit and kaboodle of fireworks amazingness. I prepared myself for the event all day.
We spent the morning cleaning house, very patriotic I know. The girls were rewarded with their hard work (Read: Staying out of our way as we cleaned) by a session in our sprinkler and improptu sandbox turned swimming pool. The weather was really nice, not hot at all, meaning water games caused some shivering and teeth chattering.
Despite the temperature the girls had fun running wild. After a nap we headed off to the local park to enjoy the festivities.
My parents had rented a booth to sell their donuts and drinks to attendees, so we sat with them and had a yummy picnic dinner.
The girls were eager to play on the inflatables. The moon bounce was first.
Maggie loved it, Ellie not so much. She couldn't quite figure out how to get up with all the jumping going on around her, so she exited pretty quickly.
There were a couple of tall slides, and a couple of obstacle courses to play in as well. I wasn't sure Ellie was going to be able to participate in either of these being so little.
Silly me, I tend to underestimate that kid more than I should.
She had help the first time up, but did it all on her own the fifteen or so times after.
Maggie loved doing the obstacle course, and after only one time of waiting for her sister, Ellie wanted a chance too. Again, she excelled.
Having exhausted all of the sights offered at the festival we found ourselves with at least two hours until fireworks would commence. Being thoroughly uninterested in the traffic or wrangling my kids and wasting time we bribed them with ice cream to leave the park early, without watching fireworks.
They weren't too upset.
What's a family outing without silly family selfies?
Much to Maggie's delight the ride home we saw several fireworks and even from our drive way were able to see several shot off. Thankfully, that was all the fireworks she needed.
I know I'm going to have to suck it up one of these days and let them experience the whole Fourth of July thing in all its glory...but being in bed at 11:00 and not in a grid iron parking lot is quite nice.
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