4th July 2013

Our 4th of July celebrations started the night before, with the city's fireworks display, at Nelson Park, by the Zoo.  We parked over at the Expo center.  We were there about an hour before it was scheduled to start, and already there was a sea of cars everywhere, as we drove up to the coliseum.

There were people parked on the sides of the streets, with the back of their SUVs open and sitting right at the back, or hanging out on their lawn chairs.  There were even some young guys tossing a football back and forth. People were really getting into the July 4th mood :)

 

We watched most of the display from the front seats of our car, with the little boy on my lap and having the best seat in the house :).  He didn't remember the fireworks from last year, but he was really excited and didn't mind the loud booms so much because we had the windows up.

It was a wonderful display, lasting about half an hour, with music synchronized over the radio, on KBCY 99.7. Little boy's observation  "After the fireworks is over, it turns into a cloud!", referring to the smoke trails left over in the sky...

We got out of the car for the grand finale, and were surprised that there weren't any mosquitoes.  By then, it was feeling very pleasant outside.

The celebrations continued the next morning Hillcrest Church of Christ for the Annual 4th July Hillcrest Neighborhood Parade.

As with the years past, the little boy wanted to get out and about and explore "while I wait". He did slip and scrape his elbow while balancing on the sidewalk thingy, but bounced right back up, and continued exploring.

Side Note : What on earth could be more adorable than this little boy in his muscle shirt???!

The main attraction for him, however, was the dirt.  He spent a lot of time "planting rocks and acorns and sticks".

He wasn't even aware of, nor was he very interested, when the parade finally started :)

He did stop playing ONCE, when daddy came by to get him because they were tossing candy out to the kids :)

When the parade was over, everyone moved on into the multipurpose room/hall for home made ice cream and cookies! Talk about a sugar high!

The little boy chose a few cookies and some chocolate ice-cream. "Chocolate ice cream is the best!"

That night, we broke out some of the fireworks that we had saved over the years, and the little boy got to play with his very first sparklers ever :).  He thought it was cool, but didn't really care too much for the ones that flew up in the air and exploded. :)

Even daddy and mummy got in on some of the Sparkler action :)