Happy 4th of July

 I love celebrating the fourth of July with our family.  Last year, we began spending the day working our way through small town fun via Edmond's LibertyFest celebrations and this year we largely did the same with a BBQ party at Able & Kari's in the middle.

We arrived at the parade 10 minutes early, but it was already underway.  We couldn't quite make it across the street to Aunt Audra so we watched from the opposite side.  (Yes, I did get all my kids at least one piece of red, white, and blue clothing for the occasion.  I am finally stepping up my 4th preparations).

 Luckily, there were horses early in the parade as these are currentlya family favorite.

 I totally love E's shirt with the stars on the yoke.  He loved the parade, but also walked around us in circles fairly often. It was pretty hot, but we hung in there for about 1.5 hours (we apparently left with just a few groups remaining).

These two are adorable and aside for some parking frustrations for Brent had a good time taking it all in. 

Then we headed to Able & Kari's.  I cooked for the first 45 minutes or so, but probably should have just brought watermelon as that was clearly the favorite.  I think E and his budy Kady only had watermelon.  Our hosts made lovely chicken and banana pudding (the later was my favorite of the day).

 There was a lot of swimming in the "big kid pool."  M and Brody, in particular had a great time splashing and playing together. The Korenak crew joined us as well, but left slightly earlier for naptime and Grandma's house.

 Look, all three kids in one picture being cute!  After this we headed home for family naps, steak supper, and ParkFest/Firework prep. There are only snow cones and BBQ at ParkFest so we provisioned ourselves accordingly and added more sunscreen.

7:20pm - We drove across Edmond listening to Sousa marches, which is a family tradition.  We quickly found a perfect viewing spot, and began our trek across the UCO campus.  Have I mentioned I love college campuses (and these two guys too?)

 First stop - snow cones.  Of course moments after this everyone had snowcone juice on their whites, but it was worth it.

 B loves that they have make your own flavor and he had a whole rainbow going on his snowcone.

E prefers to taste all the flavors and mostly shared with everyone although technically he had his own that ended up mostly being Brent's.

 There is a lot of waiting in line involved.  The bouncy houses and rides are free, but there are just a few compared to the number of attendees.  We were wandering through lines for 2 hours and went on 2-3 rides/bouncy things per kid.  Line standing can be fun too if you have a bunch of tired kids :)

 Bouncy house #1

 Of course they blasted through in seconds.

 More waiting in line.  B & M rode their first carnival ride.  I think called the wrecking ball, with Brent after a long wait.  Luckily the timing just worked as they were on the next to the last riding group of the night.

Then we went back to the minivan, folded down the back seats (cleaned up a bit, ahem) and then had some people in chairs and some inside as we watched 30 minutes of beautiful fireworks.  E didn't know what we were waiting for and seemed to think we were waiting for stars to turn on, which was humorous.  He did climb in and out of the van between us and his chair quite a bit, but otherwise seemed to have a great time.  No tears all around and lots of fun.  We even made it home much more quickly this year.  It was a wonderful 4th of July celebration in Edmond and continued into the weekend at the farm.  To be continued...