4th of July

Independence Day celebrations start a day early in our town, kicking off the evening of July 3rd with spectacles on the town green, followed by fireworks.  The first time Ethan and I attended the town's fireworks display was when Julia was in the womb; I remember feeling her kick for the first time that evening, probably in response to the stimulation of the loud, thunderous noise.  Maybe that should have been a clue as to how she would perceive the fireworks, but unfortunately I ignored it as Ethan and I optimistically set out with 2-year-old Julia a few 4th of Julys later.  I will never forget the fact that after we kept her up late to witness the excitement of the town fireworks, we wound up practically sprinting her home in the stroller about 30 seconds into the display because she began shrieking hysterically with fear. 

We learned our lesson from Julia's terror that the fireworks were going to "sprinkle" down on her, so we decided to forgo the tradition for the next couple of years.  Finally, with Julia being a big 5 and half year old, and with Madeleine close to 3, we took the plunge last night and decided to give the fireworks another try.  This time we had a contingency plan in place, stationing ourselves near a quick and easy exit path should Madeleine freak out like Julia did at her age.  I suppose I should have known better; although Madeleine may be scared to the dinosaur, she is in general a much less fearful child than Julia, and of course she thought the fireworks were super cool. 

Amid her loud exclamations of things like "That one really caught my eye!", Madeleine also felt the need to loudly announce the color of each explosion in the sky.  "GREEEEEEN!"  "PURRRRRRPLE!!"  and so forth.  Obviously there was no need to worry about her getting nervous.  Julia, for her part, was also over any fears, and absolutely loved the whole fireworks experience.  "Mama, I was worried that I might be scared of the fireworks, but I'm not even nervous!" she declared in the middle of the show.  After a particularly sparkly and showy display, Julia voiced her approval: "I totally liked that one!"

While we got the kids to bed well past their bedtime, the upside to them going to sleep at 10pm was that they both slept past 8 this morning.  As we got ourselves ready to go watch our town's 4th of July parade, Madeleine reflected on the previous evening's fireworks experience:  "They went... BOOOOM!  There were HUMONGOUS ones!  Everywhere in the SKY they were FAR, FAR away!"

Well put.

Julia was chomping at the bit to get down to the parade, though Madeleine preferred to take her time and got distracted coloring in Julia's Strawberry Shortcake coloring book (though Madeleine's coloring does not include individual songs by every character.)  Julia kept urging her slow-poke sister to hurry it along, but Madeleine wasn't to be rushed.

JULIA: Come ON, Madeleine!  Come get your shoes on!
MADELEINE: Julia, I just have to finish coloring this.  Then I can go to a PARADE.

Once Madeleine had finished coloring, she called out to her sister, "Okay, Julia, I can go to a PARADE now!"  Before long, her shoes were on and we were ready to go:

While the girls seemed to enjoy the various marching and jazz bands, dancers, and floats, I'm pretty sure it was the free candy being tossed to the crowds that appealed to them most about the parade:

While we walked home after the parade's end, the girls, completely distracted  by all the people and animals walking around us and unable to simply look straight ahead, had several clueless collisions, both with each other, and with other people/animals.  At one point, Madeleine, walking too closely to her sister in front of her, wound up bonking into Julia's back.  Madeleine's orange lollipop (featured above) got stuck to the back of Julia's skirt.  Although the lollipop was quickly rescued and returned to its rightful owner, Madeleine clearly thought a lollipop-taking conspiracy was afoot.  The next time they collided, this time because Julia decided to suddenly do an about-face to say something to me, causing the two girls to crash right into each other, Madeleine was sure Julia was after her lollipop.  "JULIA!"  she scolded her sister.  "This lollipop is MINE, not YOURS!"  I'm sure you can all imagine how well Julia took that unnecessary command.

At any rate, the holiday is off to a fun start for the kids, and they are eagerly awaiting this afternoon's barbeque and visit from Auntie Caitlyn.  Happy 4th, everyone!