4th of July

On the actual 4th of July, we had a big day.  Finn & Fish hit up their first parade.  To say that Finn was excited about the parade was a major understatement.  Well, that and the fact that Owen was going to be coming to watch the parade with her as well.

Mimi came prepared and brought two ice cream buckets for them to put all their candy in.  I didn't know exactly how Fish would react to the loud noises of a parade, but he did great.  Nothing scared him except the guns that one group was firing off.  Guns you say?  Yes, the first group that walked by was a group of nondescript guys, hiring their rifles in the air, which I'm sure where blanks.  But that even made me & Finn jump.

One of the first groups that walked by handed out American flags.  HUGE HIT.  HUGE.  She waved that flag so much at the parade and through our entire stay in Iowa.

Owen was a parade pro and knew exactly what to do when the candy came raining down on us (which it truly did).  Finn had a small learning curve that when they threw candy, she was supposed to pick it up and put it in her bucket.  But once she realized, she overtook Owen as the candy-picker-upper pro.  Girlfriend was determined.

We made a rule that morning "Stay on the grass.  If there is candy in the road, either Grandma Linda (Owen's other grandma) or Mimi will go into the road and pick it up."  And both followed the rule very well.  Neither even made an attempt to go out onto the road.  And the candy throwers had pretty good aim at making the grass most times.  The parade also threw out hamburgers, pork sandwiches, cheese, & popsicles.  That's my kind of parade!

Crazy American flag waving kids with full candy buckets

That evening, we all hit up our hometown 4th of July celebration.  Finn & Owen were able to jump in the bounce house all by themselves.  Finn had a great time for the first 2-3 minutes and then she wanted out and was over it.

The playground was more her speed (and Uncle Cory's as well it seems!).  We slid down that slide a dozen times at least.

Can you tell how many times we went down that slide?  Her poor hair was a complete static frizz by the end.

There were other games and such at the festival.  I wanted Finn to go the "Fish Pond" which was something that I used to do as a little kid.  For a quarter, she got handed a fishing pole, which was thrown into the pond (over a piece of plywood).  Then she had to wait patiently for "a bite" or a tug on her fishing pole.  Once she pulled it over, there was a toy attached.  She liked it so much, we had to do it twice.  But by that point, both kids were getting tired from so much 4th of July fun all day, that we decided to leave.  I asked Finn if she wanted to see the fireworks later when we got back to my parents' house.  She didn't seem to thrilled about the thought of more fireworks, so we just stayed inside and hit the hay.  But to say that she had fun on the 4th of July was an understatement!  She had a blast!