High Five for the Fourth of July!
I'm combining my usual High Five for Friday post with one about our Kwaj Fourth of July (and yes, just like last week H54F post, it's late. In my defense, not much happened last week AND the Kwaj Fourth of July party was on the fifth because of a weather delay.
As usual, we celebrated at the beach. This year all the activities were in the late afternoon or evening, a welcome change from previous years when everything started at 1 in afternoon (AKA when Kwaj doubles as a frying pan). There was a bouncy house, a giant slip n slide, crafts, vendors, a weaving demonstration, besides the usual beach and playground fun.
As usual, we celebrated at the beach. This year all the activities were in the late afternoon or evening, a welcome change from previous years when everything started at 1 in afternoon (AKA when Kwaj doubles as a frying pan). There was a bouncy house, a giant slip n slide, crafts, vendors, a weaving demonstration, besides the usual beach and playground fun.
First 4th of July as an American!
The beach party started out with a bike parade:
which none of my kids participated in. Sky's not a joiner (new means change, which is still scary sometimes) and if Sky's not doing it, neither is Fire.
We hit the swings
and then Sky and Fire tried the big slip n slide. I was super proud of them for trying this because they've always been too scared in the past to do it, even if D went with them. Sky only went a few times but Fire LOVED it and spent over an hour running, sliding, and waiting in line to do it all over again.
The waiting:
The running
(It was really funny to watch Fire take his turn- he would run his little heart out to the slip n slide, then come to a full stop, climb up on to the slide, and then run and slip down it!)
I didn't get a picture of Sky on any of her turns but she had fun on the slip n slide too
Sky is an artsy girl and she headed for the craft tent as soon as she got done swimming to decorate a 4th of July coconut
Water with his daddy
Water with N (one of his BFFs) and her dad
We had fireworks this year! That's a big deal for us here and I was super excited for the kids to see them since it would be their first time. They launch them from a barge parked out in the lagoon:
Fireworks!
All the kids loved them, although Sky fell asleep halfway through the show. Water held on to me for dear life but couldn't take his eyes off the sky and Fire couldn't stop talking about how loud they were.
D says that you can tell you had a good time the night before if you finished by parking on your front lawn!
How was your 4th? Did you do anything special to celebrate? Were there fireworks?
I love my fifth floor apartment and the view to the east......a veritable Central Park-like blanket of trees with the twinkling street lights. I just dive into the Christmas décor so love my night views. For the second year we (me and Meowss and Suki) watched firework displays from the left side of my window to the right....
ReplyDeleteThere are some diagonally across the street in an old filling station lot. Then the country club ones up north and somebody's to the south. .Andover's, straight east, are spectacular and lasted for two and a half hours (at which point I began thinking of the cost and all the children in poverty neighborhoods whose school breakfasts and lunches Gov. Brownback (@#$()(@#*$)@(#$) just cancelled so the schools could buy the books they didn't have funds for otherwise) @#($*)@(#*)$(.
Brownback got re-elected govenor in spite of 243 Republican reps voting against him. His ads proclaimed that his experiment was working. He raised the sales tax intended to provide for all Kansas needs and for the middle class to absorb and didn't raise the 1% Koch brothers and buddies. Kansas has become the laughing stock on most of the news media.
Of course the sales tax has not provided nearly enough funds and the entire state is suffering terribly.
He proposed and they passed a bill that forbade poor people on financial assistance (and food stamps) to be able to go to movies, parks and any recreational activites.... including swimming pools. These law and order folks don't realize that if they do not allow kids who do not have AC to swim or get out of the heat, most of those kids will be one the streets in negative behavior ... potentially due to extreme heat distress. Poor brown and black and white kids.
Anyway we now have a ritual. I carefully place Suki on the cat window perch and her head toward the bright light displays. Then I coax Meowss onto my dad's hand-hewn table on top of the cedar chest and the booming catches her glance. Amazingly they sit there for about 30 minutes in rapt attention with me relegated to the end of my bed. Then we all get busy again..