Wednesday, December 9, 2009

4th of July Celebration

Pat and I started the 4th with the Firecracker 5K.  We hadn't run a road race since Jacob was a baby.  We both had a good race -- Pat met his goal of finishing under 30 minutes and I finished second in my age bracket.
After the race we came back and made patriotic waffles - blueberries, strawberries and cream! Yummy!

We walked to the end of the street for the parade.  The kids got a big bag full of candy that lasted until Halloween!
The night before we walked down to the fire station.  Becky, my Locks of Love hair dresser, (who is also a volunteer firefighter) invited us to come see the firetrucks while they were washing them for the parade.  Hannah and Jacob sat in several of the trucks and went inside the fire station and tried on their helmets.  But Luke was terrified so he stayed out in the parking lot with Daddy and Sophie.  It's funny because he wanted to be a firefighter for Halloween and also loves to play with his toy fire trucks.  And next year he wants a firetruck birthday!  The loud sirens are what does it for him because during the parade he backs up a half a block when the fire trucks and marching bands go by.

Becky and Jenny (sisters and volunteer firefighters) gave them all a plastic fire hat, coloring book, crayons, beads, smokey bear bandanna.

After lunch we watched the annual ducky race down the Fall River.  They dropped over 700 ducks from a bridge up north.  It was fun to watch them bob down the river from the footbridge down the street from us.  It was one of the largest crowds I have ever seen at a public event since moving here.  The crowds walked alongside the river following the ducks to the finish line.  The kids had so much fun after the race going in the river to retrieve the ducks.  Sophie and Luke helped on shore with the ducks that were thrown up to shore - gathering them for next year's race.  The gave away several fancy prizes (jeep, flat screen tv, etc).  The ducks were $5/piece.  We didn't buy a duck this year but we may next year as it would be fun to cheer our duck on as it bobbed down the river to the finish line.  I wish I would have brought my camera!! 

We spent the evening with friends -- we had a picnic complete with s'mores and then watched the fireworks from their backyard.
Happy Birthday, America!

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