Happy 4th of July!

The day started out pretty rough at 3:30am.  Dalton was coughing so we gave him his breathing treatment.  Unfortunately that wires him up pretty good, so he bounced off the walls until 5:45.  That gave me just enough time to clean the poop out of my bed - a little gift from Stella - before Darby woke up at 6...

About 10 we went to visit Shel to watch the Sparkman 4th of July parade.  On the way there I had this conversation with Darby:

Darby - Mom this is Horrible!!
Julie- What's horrible?
Darby - The road!
Julie- yes Darby, this is 635.

When we got to Shel's she had donuts for us.  I don't know if the kids have ever had donuts before - but they were pretty happy to try them out (see attached video). On the way there I had to prep Darby that we weren't going to have candy for breakfast - for some reason she calls Lifesavers donuts. She told me I was silly though.  Apparently she does know the difference.  I should have known.

 

After donuts we went and watched the parade.  The kids loved collecting the candy that people threw. Dalton decided he was going to taste test all the lollipops.  Sucking on them for a few minutes and then demanding another.  He got 3 and then we put the kibosh on that.  Glad they enjoyed collecting it.  Now it's just going to sit in the cabinet with last year's Halloween candy which they never got to eat.  I suppose some day they're going to start demanding that they get to eat that stuff... Mean Mommy.

On the way home from the parade Dalton wanted water so we stopped at McDonald's. I decided to get them lunch as well - kind of a historic meal - their first non-breakfast meal from McDonald's.

About 5 we headed over to the Castle Hills 4th of July festival. All of Darby's best friends were there. Darby was actually quite adventurous for her.  She was loving on the bounce houses (see attached video) and even went on the obstacle course with the slide - loved it.

I will hug her, and squeeze her, and call her George.

We went to get sliders from the food truck and on the way there I asked her if she needed to potty.  She said no.  Of course, as I'm hauling the 2 of them back to the tent in the wagon, balancing 2 trays of food on my arm, she decides she is desperate to potty.  I should have known better. So, after a desperate tour around the place looking for the potty, we found our way in - wagon, food trays and all.  Everyone in the place knew us by the time we left. Oddly enough, wagons don't maneuver easily going backwards down a narrow hallway when you've only got one hand...

 All went well until the fireworks started - that's when Darby decided she needed to potty again.  At that point I just put one of Dalton's diapers on over her panties and told her to let it rip.

The kids loved the fireworks (for the first few minutes).  This was another first for them.  I was kind of afraid Dalton would freak out, but he was cute - he just kept saying "Boom!...Boom!...Boom!"

Once we were done, things got a bit rough again - bookending our day.  After loading myself up like a pack mule with bags and a chair and hauling the wagon with the 2 kids in it uphill in the heat back to the car, we sat for 40 minutes in dead stop traffic before we made it out to the main road.  Dalton was not pleased with this.  He helped by screaming and shouting "That Way!...That Way!..." I suppose he just thought I was lost.

All in all an exhausting but awesome day.