The Fourth

What a beautiful weekend!  The weather was perfect- no rain and not too hot!  We headed to Derek's parent's for the weekend.  Festivities were the same as every year, which is part of the reason I love it so much!

Punky and Buddy dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf for the Kiddie Parade.  We borrowed the wolf hat from a friend and hot-glued some scraps of fake fur onto a t-shirt and an old pair of Punky's shoes.  Grandma sewed the Little Red Riding Hood's cape and I found the dress at Goodwill.  It was a size 2, so it was cut straight down the back and held together with safety pins.  The dress was all white originally, but I painted the top part black and added some trim I had leftover from a German beer girl costume I sewed back in my 20s.  It came together really well!

Punky did a great job walking the parade route.  She smiled and waved to all the people.  Buddy made it about a block before he got pissed off and ran to the side of the road as mad as can be.  The kids were following two teenagers with a sign for the Storybook category.  These girls were throwing out candy and Buddy was convinced he was missing out on all the candy!  He threw down his wolf hat, stomped to the side of the road, and quit!  Luckily, Daddy was there to carry him the rest of the way and reassure him that there would be plenty of candy during the main parade.  What a stinker!

 

After the parade, we headed to Grandma Margene and Grandpa Menno's for the best meal of the year.  Yumm!

We braved the mosquitoes and went to the park to watch fireworks that night.  The kids loved them!  Buddy fell asleep before we even made it onto the highway and he slept all the way until 11:45 the next morning!  I normally would've been worried, but I slept that late too!  It was amazing!

On Saturday, we took it easy.  The kids went swimming.  We went to the park.  Grandma, Auntie and I went shopping at a cute new boutique.  We grilled and then lit off our own fireworks that night.  I apparently suck at nighttime/fireworks photography, so there aren't many photos that turned out.  The light was changing quickly too, and I didn't keep up with it.  Maybe one year, I'll figure it out.

 
It was a fun weekend, always one of the best of the year!  Now if we can just get summer to slow down.  It is moving too quickly!