4th of July Festivities

So as you know the 4th of July is the best day of the year in our house, though this year we trudged through and tried to do the best we could even though Michael Jackson is no longer with us. Rest in Peace, king, Rest in Peace. So we tried to move on the best we could and went to the 4th of July parade. Joseph was able to march in the kids and Bike parade, at the prompting of our neighbors. They inspired us to pimp out Joseph's car in order to march in the parade. It was pretty fun but I don't think Joseph cared much. Then we watched the big parade, which had some cool floats including a recreation of Iwo Jima.

Also we stumbled upon a great free activity for you to do with your kids. An unseen benefit to owning a house is the sudden importance of Home Depot. Since the parade shared a parking lot with Home Depot, we stopped by to see what was available. When we got there we saw that there was a free kids expo where the kids get to make a little project and get to where goggles and the orange Home Depot Apron. Better yet, they get to keep the Apron and they get a pin for each project they complete. They do this on Fast Saturday- or the first saturday of each month. Did I mention it's free?!

So we got Joe-Joe (or as I've taken to calling him lately, Draco in honor of the new Potter movie. Why Draco? The hint is hair color) his cute Apron and we built a picnic caddy and Joseph even pounded in the nails (until they got too bent and daddy had to help.) It turned out good, Joseph had fun and its free! We will be returning on Fast Saturday in August. I like Joseph's Zapatos del Barco (Boat shoes) with no socks. He wore that Home Depot apron all day and it is just so cute! We look forward to August.

Then it was back to our house where the BBQing began. We first had some brats and it was a chance to try out our new grill which I had just assembled. It turns out it worked pretty good. We ended up grilling brats, hot dogs, steak burgers and ribs. We had way more food than we could handle but it was all good. We got hampered a little bit by the rain at about 2:30 or so it poured rain most of the rest of the day. Joseph got a chance to see his younger cousin Kylie as they were in town for the 4th of July. It was fun to see her.

At night we went to the fireworks and Annie and I got cool- real cool, I mean check out these glasses! These would be like $50 in Disneyland.Got a few fireworks shots too!

The rain finally let up for fireworks and we saw a pretty good display and watched a couple of illegally parked cars go on to receive tickets after the show so it stinks to be them, but they thought they were better than everyone else so they deserved it.

Oh and our Family Fun shirts came out all right and we actually got a few comments on them and were encouraged to make them professionally. Nice work hon! And a tip of the hat to Max- we couldn't have done it without your support!