I love a parade...

To celebrate the 4th of July, Jon and I took the Kids to the local parade (of course, I forgot my camera, so you'll just have to visualize).

Both Isabel and Elijah were fascinated by the people in funny costumes, colourful floats, dancers & musicians. We were particularly interested in the high wheel bicycles:
We also learned that we need to enroll Izzie in dance classes ASAP. When the cheerleaders went past us, Isabel focused on them intently, mimicing their every move. Their left arms went up, Izzie's left arm went up. And so on and so forth. This child has a gift and who am I to get in the way of that?

Elijah loved clapping for everyone who passed by us. He did not love the loudness of the sirens or firecrackers that local boys kept setting off. Loud noises frighten him, and he cried a couple of times during the parade. Luckily he's very easy to console, and will quickly regroup and be his happy go lucky self again.

We had intended to watch the fireworks by the lakefront, so we put the kids down for a late nap, thinking they'd wake up for dinner and then we could go. Well, they did wake up for dinner, but were both so grumpy that they ended up going right back to bed and sleeping through the night. Guess we'll have to wait till next year for their first fireworks experience.