Independence Day Celebrations

It's become a kind of family tradition over the last four years that on the Fourth of July both Matt & my families come to our house for a parade and lunch. This year, our church decided to walk in the parade to promote a couple of events that are coming up (Vacation Bible School & a free clothing event), so we enlisted the help of our families to hand out flyers and candy in the parade with us. It was pretty fun (as far as being in parades go) until we ran out of flyers and candy and then in the words of a friend, "now we are just taking a walk down the middle of a street with lots of people staring at us." Whoops. We would've had more candy, but every store within a 40 mile radius was pretty much sold out. Mental note: Buy candy early next year! Also, we were in line waiting to start the parade about and hour and a half before it actually started, so Bennett was spent by the time we actually  moved. He was pretty cute, though, waving his little flag!

After the parade and a great lunch with our families, Matt headed to work and Bennett & I enjoyed an awesome nap. Bennett normally doesn't wake up in the morning until 9:30 or so, and we had to be at the church at 8. I didn't go to bed the night before until our usual 1:00 AM and then hardly slept because I was so afraid that I would oversleep. I never sleep well when I know I have to get up earlier than normal, so we were both exhausted!
I decided last minute that Bennett & I would join some friends at another parade in a nearby town, so after our nap we hurried to get things ready. I'm really glad that we went. Sometimes I feel like I can't go do things with our friends when Matt is working, but I didn't want to just sit at home tonight when there were so many fun things going on.




It was super hot at the parade, but Bennett enjoyed watching the parade more than he liked being in the parade. He also tried a tootsie roll for the first time and boy, did he like them! He kept grabbing the wrappers and saying, "mo! mo!"...or "more" for those of you who don't speak toddler.

He didn't like that I was covering his ears for all the sirens, so he climbed onto Jacquelin's lap. She had to cover his ears, too and he wasn't too happy!

Waiting for the fireworks with Jacquelin

 

Bennett watching the fireworks with his best friend Josh.


Bennett fell asleep on the drive home and dozed in and out of sleep while I changed his diaper & clothes before bed. It was actually really sweet to have him cuddle with me before bed. He's been doing that a lot less lately. He did so well all day considering how busy we were! I hope I don't pay for him staying out so late tomorrow, but it was worth it regardless.