It doesn’t get much more “quintessential American summer” than 4th of July week, even if your barbeque is broken like ours is. We kicked the week off with fireworks at the local high school. Where we live, fireworks are not just for the 4th. Each town hosts fireworks on a different night before and after the actual holiday… you could go to a different fireworks show every night of the week if you really wanted to!
Lucy waiting for fireworks to start. We use this quilt a lot in the summer and it is perfect for 4th of July festivities. Matt and I acquired this quilt just after we were married. We were returning a few wedding gifts at Macy’s just before getting ready to drive across the country to start our lives together in New York City. We ended up with a small credit that for some reason we needed to use right then and there, so we quickly scanned the store and randomly decided on the first thing that caught our eye… this Americana quilt. I never would have guessed that 13 years later it would be such an integral part of our summer celebrations.
The fireworks show did not disappoint. Lucy was scared of the fireworks last year but loved them this time around. “I like fireworks. I have fun!” she kept saying afterward. I think Claire may be the only person on earth ever to fall asleep in the middle of a fireworks show (and again on the way home). When that poor girl is tired, she really can fall asleep anywhere.
On the morning of the 4th, we participated in our town parade. I say it every year, but it is absolutely one of my favorite events. Just like last year, Claire and Lucy rode in the wagon and Ella rode her bike, but this time it was without training wheels!
After the parade we settled in for music in the park (with the quilt, of course).
As usual, Ella was enthralled with the band.
It took a while for her to warm up but eventually she was dancing onstage. When the band starting playing a cover of “Dynamite,” she really went crazy.
We had some visitors join us this year. Baby Lily was here from London…
… with her parents: Ashley (Matt’s sister, pictured above with Claire) and Anthony. What made the day extra exciting was finding out that Ashley & Anthony had decided to buy a house in our town when they move back to the US next month. We thought we had lost them to our neighboring rival town, but were thrilled to find out they will be so close. We haven’t lived near family for so long that my girls can’t even imagine what it will be like to have five cousins just minutes away.
Later on that night we let the girls stay up late for sparklers in the backyard. The sparklers we bought turned out to be pretty lame, but thankfully the girls didn’t notice the difference since they had never tried them before.
Claire was done after her first one. A thrill-seeker she is not.
We had 8 boxes of sparklers (they were sold in a large pack), so Matt and I had plenty of opportunities to perfect our sparkler shapes.
The day after the 4th, we all hopped in the car and drove two hours south to spend a long weekend with the New Jersey Woodburys, or simply “the cousins,” as the girls call them. It was hot, as July tends to be, so we basically spent two straight days at their pool.
Claire and Alex. Alex called Claire “Claire Bear” all weekend long.
While we were there, Ella found the courage not only to go off the regular diving board for the first time, but the high dive as well. “It’s not even scary,” she said nonchalantly after her first jump, as we were all wildly clapping for her from the pool deck. She had refused to go off the diving board at our pool because she felt like the water was too deep. She kept claiming, “I can only swim in 4 feet.” Attempts to explain that swimming in 4 feet deep water is the same thing as swimming in 11 feet deep water were in vain. But seeing her cousins do something and not wanting to be left out sure made Ella brave in a hurry.
Let’s hear it for cousins, and for a little bit of positive peer pressure.
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