4th of July Weekend

Epic 4th of July weekend.  We started Friday morning with the neighborhood parade.  Although Olive CAN ride a tricycle, we had doubts that she WOULD ride it for the whole parade route.  She agreed to another year of the stroller.  Hannah upgraded her bike with training wheels to a new 7-speed bike without training wheels.  More on the bike in another post.

After the neighborhood parade we headed to Village Fest (or Line Fest as Steve likes to call it).  Instead of fireworks, Prairie Village spends money on a kid festival with bouncy houses, petting zoo, train ride, and all sorts of activities.  All free!

We waited in a huge line to do the giant hamsterball.  This was Hannah's #1 priority for Village Fest.  Steve helped push her up the hill and then she went down all by herself.  Olive decided to try it too, but only made it halfway up before she wanted to be done.

Olive's top priority was the petting zoo, although these pictures are of Hannah.

The bike shows you the amount of energy it takes to power different light bulbs.

We took Hannah's bike to the skateboard park and both girls ran around in the pit.  It almost gave me a heart attack to see Hannah ride up and down ramps.

We went back to our house for lunch and naps, then back to the Prairie Village pool.  The pool is right next to Village Fest and it is free to everyone on July 4th.  When Olive saw it she said, "I would give anything to go swimming today!"  So of course we had to go.  Our first time swimming this summer.  Then we headed to Olathe for the Holcombe's backyard party for dinner.  The girls played in their blow-up pool and this was a water balloon catch game.  We could see Olathe's fireworks from a trail by their house.  Although the girls were more interested in catching fireflies than watching fireworks.  They only stay up late enough for fireflies a couple times a year, so it is a big deal!

Saturday we went to Chillicothe for Laura's wedding reception.  She got married in Florida in the spring.  I've been friends with Laura since kindergarten and she was a reader in our wedding.  It was so fun to meet her husband and hear their story.  And Uncle Casey's parents were at the reception, too!  I tried to get Hannah to tell his mom that "Uncle Casey is stinky," but she wouldn't do it.  She had to be polite.  Bah.  Isn't the point of having kids to get them say funny things?  

For unknown reasons Chillicothe had their fireworks show on July 5th, so we got a bonus show.  The local radio station played music before the fireworks and the girls did a light show with glow sticks and LED light sticks.  

We have never been that close to the fireworks before.  They filled the sky!  They radio played patriotic music throughout the show, which was kinda cool at first...then a little annoying.  Speaking of annoying, there was a dancing Olive blocking the show.  Don't even ask why she is wearing too-short Dora shirt and too big skirt.  I'm not allowed to pick out her clothes.

Past freedom festivities: 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009