4th madness

In truth, I have mixed feelings about the 4th of July. I truly love it - we really do it up here in our neighborhood and we always have a great day, watching fireworks, dorking out with the red/white/blue, eating hot dogs, etc. BUT - it's kind of the half-way point of summer, and that's a hard one for me!
This year on July 3rd we went to the Rockies game - they had a fireworks show of course. It was an awesome fireworks display - I hope I never stop feeling that thrill of watching (and hearing!) fireworks...they give me chills! Feels so "American" to me.
This is how we get CC through a baseball game....



They are looking backwards at the big scoreboard/video screen! The seats filled in by the way...game was near capacity crowd.


After the game, a number of the sections that were in the 'hot zone' had to move out onto the field to watch the fireworks. CC thought we were in a parade!

It's also a bit crazy at our house each year as I do my "Hospitality Board" duties and host the pool event. This year saw me cooking hot dogs in my kitchen at 6am. 300 of them. Not a great smell...not even my beloved Dunkin Donuts coffee could drown out the odor of 300 hot dogs...no, I did not eat a single one.

Everyone decorates their bicycles, strollers, etc...anything on wheels - there are prizes for best decorated. Then everyone meets up in front of the pool at 11am and a fire truck leads a "parade" with everyone following, around the block, sirens and lights going the whole time. When the fire truck comes back to the pool parking lot, it sprays all the kiddos (and adults) who are in the line of fire. We have a DJ at the pool, tattoos (note forehead and cheeks of boys in pic), and food (see: hot dogs.)
The morning rounds out with a jello-eating contest in the parking lot. I am the proud mother of the winner in the 6 and under division! Look at my girlie go!

She was so proud of herself, showed her trophy to everyone around her all day long! The night was a bit of a bust - poured rain for most of it, so we didn't even go to see the fireworks at the Rec Center as we typically do.
6 more weeks of summer here!!!!!