4th of July: Schwab Style

When we woke up on the 4th, Connor sounded like a frog. He was very hoarse and his cough was a little worse than the night before. His energy was ok though, so we decided to head over to Bunga and Papa's house, as planned, for their annual neighborhood parade and party. Every year their neighborhood association does a parade where the local fire truck comes and the kids all ride on their bikes, scooters, etc...around the block behind the fire truck. (This is the parade portion of the morning.) Then everyone gathers back at the park and the firemen pull out the hose for the kids to spray. There's face painting, relay races, prizes, and hot dogs. All this and we're usually done about noon.

I LOVE 4th of July pictures. There is something about the colors that just make such bright and vibrant pics! I tried to narrow them down :)

Emma Kate woke up in a bad mood and it didn't really go away...despite a wagon and parade!

Connor, however, had decorated his scooter and was ready to roll!

It's tricky doing the self-portraits with a bigger camera...

Of course Connor had to spray the hose with the firman!

And also get sprayed...(I love that you can see the water droplets in the air!)

This is about when Connor started to fade. I noticed his eyes started looking a bit glassy and his energy level was fading...fast.

I promised him that he could participate in the 3-legged-race with Dom before heading back across the street to Bunga and Papa's house.

Then it was time for Papa and Dom to do the race. It was hilarious! They fell on the way back and Papa landed right on a bee, getting stung on the hand. I know this isn't really funny, however, this type of thing always happens to Papa! Both sad and funny at the same time ;)

Meanwhile Jeff wrangled Emma Kate, who wanted to be part of the action by this point...Just my luck...one kid perks up, while the other fades. I love this picture of Jeff and Emma Kate...

We didn't have anything else planned for the day. This ended up being a good thing since The Littles were not 100%. Dominic decided to ditch the fam and head out with Nana and Papa for the rest of the day and night. So we kept the rest of the day low key. The kids took late naps, so we decided to brave the Pleasant Hill fireworks. This is tradition for our family, but the first year we have gone by ourselves. We get so wrapped up in doing things with other people that we rarely go places with just the kids. I have to say...it was really nice. Granted, Dominic wasn't with us, so we missed him. But we were able to focus solely on the kids and our family time together.

Emma Kate was a little grouchy, but she made it through. And Connor is such a trooper. He was actually the deciding factor on whether to go or not. We had decided that if he really wanted to go, then we would. And clearly...he did!

We took flags and glow bracelets to play with while we waited for the show to begin.

And there was music...! For dancing!

The kids did great and we were so happy we (rather Connor) decided to go;)