4th of July Fun!

I think the fourth of July should fall on a Sunday every year- we had 3 days of celebration and fun. It just needs to happen when I'm not pregnant and tired :). Throw in a bonus cousin hula party and it was a weekend to remember!
On Saturday, DMP and uncle Jeff went fishing in the AM. Then it was time to check out the Freedom Festival in downtown. That means 2 things to our family- fun free art projects and Twisted Taters. These things are awesome- a mix of fries and potato chips with any topping you can think of! That night we went to the "big fireworks" at Thanksgiving Point. It was Birdy's first time staying up to see fireworks like that and both girls LOVED it- there was much giggling and squealing with glee!

Sunday we went to church and then went up to South Fork for a picnic. I can't remember the name of the park, but it was the "higher up", less crowded one :) We lucked out and got a shady table next to the creek.

DMP grilled some chicken sausages and Birdy found a coveted "heart rock". It really is heart shaped and the girls look for them wherever we go- kind of like hunting a four-leaf-clover.

On Monday AM, DMP (with a little supervision from Birdy) made Papper's hotcakes. This time, though, he added fresh blueberries and we had raspberry syrup and whipped cream- Red, White and Blue hotcakes. They were awesome- I want some more. Actually, everyone liked them but Birdy. We discovered that she takes her regular syrup hotcakes very, very seriously. She was VERY concerned that Daddy wouldn't make enough non-blueberry ones for her!

Monday night was our neighborhood Sidewalk of Fire! celebration. This is it's 6th year, but the first we have been able to go to. It was a lot of fun. It kicked off with a children's parade. The girls dressed up and decorated their bikes/scooters.

EJ wanted to dress up like a rock star and Birdy was a princess (what else?). There were other activities like bubbles, sparklers, desserts and face painting.

Of course the evening was topped off with fireworks! Everyone who attended (over a hundred, easily) was invited to bring fireworks. Birdy thought they were kind of loud, but she still liked them!

They sorted the fireworks from little to big and set off something like 20 at a time, it made for a much more impressive show than we would have come up with on our own!