Just another 4th of July

We celebrated the 4th of July a few weeks ago and, surprise surprise, I am finding that I absolutely love this holiday!  I wasn't entirely sure how it would be because I was 273 days pregnant, but it ended up being an absolutely exhaustingly fun day.

My last night of work before maternity leave was the night before (which already had me in a festive mood.)  S had to work this 4th again so it was just me and the Bean.  We woke up early and went to the parade (730 in the morning!  To us, that normally feels like the middle of the night.)  Bean was alright with rising early--she was pretty excited to go to the parade.

I was worried about it getting too hot (and me feeling too miserable!) but we had the perfect spot that was in the shade the entire time.  Bean waved her flag patriotically every time a marching band passed.  She was also introduced to the concept of getting candy thrown in her direction.  Needless to say, she loves parades now.

After the parade we headed to G&G H's for hot dogs.  I snagged this darling picture of Bean with some of her cousins.  I love dressing her up in red, white and blue.

Maybe because it was our last day with just the Bean and I before Boy arrived (and maybe because I'm just partially crazy) I decided that we should make the most of the day and stay up for fireworks.  So rather than go home, we headed over to G&G J's for pizza that evening.

It actually cooled off that evening so we headed to the backyard to pick some fresh raspberries from "Papa's Garden."  Bean loved running around and insisted we take pictures of just about every flower out there (I'll spare you those pictures.)  We also watched the fighter jets fly overhead.  I'm kind of a geek when it comes to fly-overs...

Grandpa picked Bean this gorgeous daylily...from his back neighbor's plant.  (Hey, it was growing onto his side of the fence.  Fair game.)

I'm pretty sure this girl loves the summertime.  Even if she keeps asking me when it's going to snow again. 

We had some cherry pie and I tried to fill up the last hour or so with a very long bath for the Bean.  I didn't think we would, but we made it to 10 o'clock that night.  When all of the fireworks started going off in the neighborhood, Bean told me that it was a little scary and that she was going to go lay down on the couch.  Seriously?!  I convinced her to come back out and watch the fireworks at the park, which she did, but only after she would put a stuffed animal on her head (I guess to protect her?)

My parents live by a business which has the perfect lawn and parking lot to set off fireworks.  As a kid we spent our entire 4th evenings up there.  A few families still go up there and the best part of the evening for me this year was when the sprinklers came on in the middle of their fireworks display, sending them all screaming and laughing.  I love this holiday...

We barely made it home that evening by midnight.  I have never seen so much traffic so late at night.  Bean and I were exhausted but she kept telling me the next day how much fun she'd had.  And she kept asking me when we were going to the parade again to get candy.