Independence Day

Celebratory Fourth of July pigtails!

Catherine's red (pink) white and blue outfit creation

Aaron is also patriotic.

Seth (not pictured) was not going to wear red, white and blue 

but eventually gave in to sibling pressure.

Two proud American sisters

Much to Jon's dismay, we attended the local parade. The only reason he was at all inclined to go was because our friend Bekah was marching with her high school band. We arrived just in time to watch her go past. Jon was all for immediately heading back to the car, but we found the Knoxes and stayed with them for a little longer. Elise was happy to commandeer one of their chairs:

Aaron was a little nervous about noisy things and especially nervous about the zombies (there was a float advertising for a haunted corn maze that was trailed by a small pack of zombies) but overall he enjoyed the whole thing much more than I anticipated:

Not sure how easy it is to enjoy a parade with a Gabe on your head, but Seth seemed to:

(please note that Catherine actually let me do her hair with red, white & blue ponytails)

Jon didn't let us stay for the entire parade, but the kids were okay since we went home and did our (very lame) fireworks. We started off with the poppers:

But then Elise pulled out the big guns:

She was slightly terrified of the sparklers:

As was Aaron:

Seth & Catherine are old pros by now:

 

For the first year ever, I decided to take the big kids to watch the real firework show. It started at 9:30 pm, which is WAY past all our bedtimes, but we did it anyway. We managed to score a seat on the sidewalk right across the street from the launch site. 

After some waiting (I may have erroneously thought it started at 9 pm), they were both thrilled by the show. They especially liked the "fizzy" explosions and the loud exploding bursts. It was a pretty good show, especially the finale. We were all very impressed. 

I was sure at least Catherine would fall asleep on the drive home but I underestimated the level of crazy these two can reach after 10 pm. Despite a much longer than usual drive thanks to detours around firework crowds, they were both totally awake and obnoxious when we arrived home. But I think sometimes it's worth the late nights to make those memories.