July 4th Celebration

July 4th was a busy day this year. We started the morning by riding our bikes up to town for the annual bike parade. Each year the kids get a bag of decorations and decorate their bikes, have a little breakfast and then ride through the center of town. All the money for the bike decorations and food goes to support the troops. It is a very short parade, lead by the local fire department. And it is a a bit chaotic. But the kids love it.

Here we are getting ready to ride into town and later, decorating the bikes.

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The parade was hilarious. A bit like herding cats. And AJ was the first kid out of the gate. ( I know this will come as a shock to many of you, but he is a bit competitive.) The kids ride down the main street and then circle around the town square until the parents start feeling faint from heat exhaustion and make them go home.

Later that day, Shawn ran into friends of ours who had rented a water slide for the kids and they invited us over. It is important when you live somewhere this hot, to be friends with people who rent water slides. AJ had a blast. He probably went up and down that slide for 3 hours solid.

After a few hours of water sliding, it was time to go to the town BBQ and fireworks display. We staked out a good spot on the lawn, ate our food and ended up having four other families of friends of ours join us by our blanket. We had fun eating, talking, watching the kids run around the pond with their glow sticks. It was a bit like watching neon fireflies zoom around.

After dinner, there was a pie eating contest right before the fireworks. AJ entered. Luckily it wasn't how much pie you could eat, but how quickly you could eat a piece of pie. It was for kids 12 and under. No hands allowed. The pictures didn't come out at all since I was in the back. But here is AJ right after the contest.

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The fireworks were pretty good. Last year they had gotten cancelled because of rain. So, we were all excited to see them this year. Charlie did really well and didn't cry at all. Although, he was pretty tired since it was 2 hours past his bedtime. I think he even slept through a few of them.

All in all, it was a really fun day. Happy 4th of July!