On Sunday night our good friend Andrew said to me, "Two years in a row makes it a tradition." He was talking about the Walters family joining his family at their neighborhood's 4th of July parade. Our first time was last year, so I'd say Andrew's right - and there we were to celebrate Independence Day 2010.
The Cloggs live in a neighborhood called Mistletoe Heights (awesome name, isn't it?) about two miles from us. We met them at the triangle-shaped park amid old Craftsman homes and joined the parade. Families and children decorate bikes, strollers, and wagons with red, white and blue. Everyone carries flags or noisemakers and we all walk (or ride) around the park while music plays. The music is performed by an amateur brass band comprised of men and women who live in the neighborhood. After we walked the parade route a few times, it was time for the Star-Spangled Banner and then off to the Clogg house for ice cream sundaes.
Abby enjoyed the other children around - her two Clogg BFFs and their cousins. We adults indulged in the sundaes and sat on the front porch, happy that it wasn't *too* hot outside. Abby also had her first-ever ice cream cone, which she stole from Avery's cousin, Chloe. Chloe offered Abby a bite and Abby ended up taking the entire cone with her! Chloe has an older sister, so she knows how to share, and I quickly got her a new cone, complete with red sprinkles. Abby ate most of her vanilla ice cream cone, sitting on Daddy's lap. She was surprisingly not messy about it and had a cute ring of ice cream around her mouth. However, the heat did cause a little mess, and Abby's patriotic shirt was sporting a few stains the rest of the night. All in all - a success!
At about 9 p.m. we adults put the children in their pajamas and set out for downtown Fort Worth. Once again, as we had done in prior years, Anna borrowed her father's work badge so we could drive up the company's eight-story parking garage. From there, we had an unobstructed, breezy view of about half a dozen fireworks shows throughout the city. We could also see the Fort Worth skyline around us; and since it's relatively flat in this part of Texas, we had a great view of everything else. The weather was perfect, as well. We opened the hatches on our respective vehicles so the kiddos could play, and we adults enjoyed the view. The kiddos liked the fireworks as well, probably more so because we were far enough away from the loud pops and bangs. At 9:45 p.m. we were all off and it was time for bed.
Not a bad way to celebrate our nation's birthday. And as all birthdays go, there's a great tradition involved with this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment