A town near us does a huge 4th of July celebration every year--except they don't necessarily do it on the actual 4th of July weekend. So, the celebration stuff was this past weekend. There's all sorts of stuff--tons of booths (our church had one on Saturday), lots of unhealthy food, a kids' area, a parade, a fireworks show, live music, etc. When we got there, we stopped by our church's booth first, to say hi and to drop off a couple things.
Failed attempt at a nice mother-daughter picture... but I thought it looked kind of cool, the way my hair is blowing over her face. (Man, I really need to get it trimmed...)
I think she was asking me to pick her up here. I just love her blue, blue eyes...
Oh, sure, she smiles when she's taking a picture with Daddy...
The main reason we went on Saturday was to take Ari to the parade. I didn't think to take any pictures of her during the parade, but here's one of her waiting for it to start (showing me the free fan she got at our church's booth)...
We've been to this parade before, but this year, Ari really got into it. She was cracking me up the whole time--squealing and giggling at everything, being completely un-scared by any loud noises or sirens, marveling at all the big trucks, waving and yelling "Hi" to all the people, etc. Every so often, a group would toss candy at the kids, and Ari would scramble to pick it all up. Then, every time, she'd say to me, very seriously, "If you see any more candy, you let me know." She'd repeat that 2 or 3 times, every time, too--pointing her finger at me to get her point across. She's so silly.
After the parade, we headed to Nick's birthday party, and spent the rest of the day there. Matt and Kristin rented a bounce house, which was a huge hit with the kids (and some of the adults too). Ari was a bit tentative about it at first--I think she was a little unnerved about not being steady on her feet when she tried to stand--but once I encouraged her to jump, and she could see that it didn't hurt if she fell down, she got right into it. I love this action shot...
They set up a couple kiddie pools too (which explains why she's wearing a bathing suit), and Ari helped fill one up...
The party fell right during her naptime, and it quickly became obvious how tired she was. She didn't throw any screaming tantrums or anything--but every little thing was making her moan and cry and whine. After a while, I took her inside and we rested for a bit, away from all the activity and other kids. I didn't want to put her down for a full nap and have her miss the party, so I tried to get her to lay down quietly with me. That lasted for all of a minute, maybe, and she wanted to get up. I let her play alone inside for a few minutes, and then we rejoined the party. I think it really helped her to have that little bit of downtime. But even after we went back outside, she still chose to play alone for a little while... she shot a few hoops...
Sunday was church as always, and I grabbed a couple pictures before we left, because I had to get some shots of this dress. We bought it for Ari while we were on our cruise last year (in St. Maarten). It was October when we got back, so it was too cold for her to wear it, and I was hoping she wouldn't outgrow it before she had a chance to wear it. And right now, it fits her perfectly. She got so many compliments on it at church, too.
Then, while we were at it, we each posed with her... (And as a bonus, I got a shot of my new dress, the one my mom bought me a few weeks back.)
And that's it for now. The rest of the pics are from the fireworks last night, but I'll save them for another entry.
2 comments:
We didn't do any real celebrating of the 4th of July. I think our town had a parade maybe, but we never paid attention to when it was and didn't try to go. On the 3rd we painted the rooms, and the actual 4th was rainy here, so if the parade was that day, it wouldn't have been too fun to be outside.
The party looks like it was fun, though. And yeah, her dress is very pretty. Looks great on her :)
I LOVE her dress! It's so pretty! All lace & all! Looks like you had a very busy weekend but fun, too!
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