That night we went and watched the city's firework show. We have a favorite spot we like to go to. There was some disagreement about whether or not it was becoming more populated, but it's still better than trying to squeeze into the crowd at the park. The girls mostly enjoy running around on the lawn before the show starts -- and getting to stay up late.
Last year after dealing with all the crowds here I said I wasn't doing another 4th in Centerville, so I planned to go to Bloomington. We did that, but were not able to avoid the Centerville festivities. Along with the children's parade Chloe and Sophie wanted to do the Freedom Fun Run. I signed them up. Bright and early Saturday morning we went to do that. Chloe wasn't feeling well, so she didn't run, but Sophie did. Her age group did 1/2 mile.
Chloe's presence. Even though she couldn't run I wanted to show she was there to support her sister.
Here she is lining up for her race:
And she's off!
This is how she felt after the race:
Sophie wanted to stick around for the awards ceremony afterwards. They didn't give awards to the participants in the children's division (everybody's a winner there!) She got a toothbrush, ribbon, and a coupon for a frosty at Wendy's for participating. But after the awards ceremony they had several prizes left over, so they just started handing them out to the few people who had stuck around till the end. We all got coupons for Dilly bars @ Dairy Queen, Sophie got a pair of socks, and Chloe got a free pizza at Little Caesar's. That was fun, but as we got up to leave Brandon realized that it was 2 minutes before the town parade would start and there was no way for us to get our car out. We were stuck. So... after all my efforts to strike the Centerville festivities I believe we participated in just about everything!
To top everything off, the girls hosted their own fireworks party. I'm such a loser at having parties because I always sit and justify why I shouldn't do it, or how it would be a bother to the people I invite. But my kids don't seem to mind, so I told them to go ahead and plan it all on their own. They made their own invitations. Chloe drew pictures on them all by herself. They saved their money up to purchase the fireworks, and invited several families to come and bring their fireworks to set off with them. They got two families to come (which is two more than I expected to show up). I'm not sure how welcome they made their guests feel, but I know the girls had a ball. I made some "edible sparklers" to help out. They were just pretzel rods dipped in white chocolate on one end.
I am terrible at nighttime photography, but here's one picture I attempted to take to document the party:
1 comment:
Good job Sophie! She ran in great time. Poor Chloe, she really looks like she didn't feel very well at all. Sounds like a great pre 4th celebration. You are such a great mom.
Post a Comment