Early Summer 2018 Part II: July 4th

Oscar started off our 4th of July by running the YMCA sponsored Yankee Doodle Dash 10K. The kids and I joined him after it was over so they could run the kids' dash too.

 Here's sweet Allison running the 2 years and younger dash. 

And Tyler doing the 5 and 6 year olds' dash

While we were waiting for the dash to start Allison had her face painted with an American flag and the kids got some fun bling.

The main gym of the Everett YMCA was closed but the lobby and bathrooms were open. Next year Oscar can bring stuff to shower after his big run.

Afterwards we spent some time at the children's museum until the street festivities began.

 We made sure to leave in time for the kids to do the fireman simulation. We waited over an hour for it 2 years ago. This time we arrived with only 2 children ahead of us.

One of those children was small like Allie, so she had to wait on daddy's shoulders a bit while he finished up and could put on the little firefighter costume. She didn't get much out of it and didn't want to climb up the bounce house ladder, so I'm really glad there wasn't a long slow line. At least Tyler really enjoyed himself.

Cute kiddos putting out the fire.

There's a church downtown that holds a 4th of July festival each year with free bounce houses, cotton candy, popcorn, and snow cones. They also do pony rides, but at 15 minutes before opening the line was already enormous. I figured I'd just take them to the free pony rides at Forest Park another day (more about that in the next post).

After that we took the kids back for naps. Tyler really doesn't nap anymore, so we recruited the help of melatonin.

After they woke up we walked to the nearby neighborhood to shoot off our own fireworks.

 Allison did NOT like the parachute poppers and was pretty indifferent towards the growing charcoal worms, but she loved everything with sparkles and colorful lights. I didn't love her trying to eat the leftover pieces....

Once we'd lit them all up we drove down to Legion Memorial Park to enjoy the bounce houses and await the fireworks. 

Only one bounce house had a slide attached to it, so it had a much longer wait than the rest. Oscar entertained the kids letting Allison clap his hands. 

 They thoroughly enjoyed their 5 minutes

Sweet Tyler helped Allison climb the ladder so she could go down the slide.

The children's museum staff were there with arts and crafts and bubbles. We ran into Samantha and Blanca del Angel there! Tyler worked on his creations until they broke down the tables, but Allison didn't want to stay that long. Oscar took her over to the Iron Man sculpture and through to the playground.

 Tyler made many creations for the liberty bell while Allison played.

My sweet girl is always ready for some fun!

Eventually Tyler and I made it over to the playground too, but by then Allison and Oscar had already gone back. She played on her Ipad until the fireworks started. She really enjoyed the fireworks, though about midway through she asked for her Ipad again and I had to say "no. We don't play Ipad while we're watching fireworks."

It was a lovely show, and we had a fairly easy time getting back to our car without a long walk or a difficult time stuck in traffic. Last year's 4th was much, much more challenging. I spent weeks looking back on how perfectly this day went in comparison!