Independence Day Celebrations

Well, our 4th of July celebrations took place over three days, which has extended our holiday into a veritable long weekend. 

Thursday night were the town fireworks, which the girls absolutely loved. 

Gone are the days of Julia freaking out that the fireworks are going to "sprinkle down on me!", although she still maintained a level of cautious alertness.  We had several conversations like this throughout the display:

JULIA: Wait, Mom, why are there lots of fire trucks here?
ME: Oh, just for extra safety.
JULIA: But what COULD happen to someone?
ME: (trying to down-play things) Oh, I don't know, like if someone setting off the fireworks accidentally got a burn or something.
JULIA: Wait, but what could happen that would burn him?
ME: Well, it's really unlikely that anything would happen.  The people who set off fireworks need to have professional training.
JULIA: But Mom.  Just what COULD happen?

or this:

JULIA: But how do fireworks even make all those colors in the sky?
ETHAN: Different metals.  Copper burns green when it explodes.
JULIA: (on alert) Wait, it EXPLODES?
ETHAN: Yeah.  Fireworks are explosions.
JULIA: (slightly panicked) Wait, so we're watching EXPLOSIONS?  Why does anybody want to watch explosions?

That's a good question Jules.  But every year, millions of Americans - INCLUDING US - gather around to watch them.  Go figure.

The 4th itself was mostly rainy, which caused us to postpone our plans to barbeque, although the rain held off during the morning so that we were able to watch the town parade.

Madeleine's favorite part of the parade was the band of clowns:

Meanwhile, Julia was enamoured with the 18th century costumery, particularly the colonial dresses that a few women wore:

JULIA: Wait, Mommy, do you really think you can BUY dresses like that?  Can I buy one?  Mommy, I reeeeeallly want to get colonial dresses like those ladies are wearing.  They look sooooo pretty! 

Well, I guess it's better that she aspire to look like a colonial woman than like some of the nearly-nude female celebrities of the current day, right?

Madeleine apparently decided to come up with her OWN fashion style today:

TOTALLY fierce.

And speaking of today, we wrapped up our Independence Day celebrations with our bbq dinner, plus, as an added bonus, we got a visit from Nana and Gramps AND from Yiayia and the Aunties.  The girls couldn't have been happier to spend time with so many loved ones.  Nor could they have been happier to shovel down the sweets, as we had sugar cookies, apple pie, ice cream, and strawberry shortcake for dessert, and Julia made sure to sample them all:

 Mmmmm!


Hope all you readers have enjoyed the weekend yourselves!