4th Flowers

We decorated for the 4th for the first time this year. In our cleaning the other day I came across these small flags that the girls had been given. We added them to the flower boxes.

As you can see some of the summer blooms are coming along very nicely this year.

The 3rd of July

I believe we have been over this ground before, Burlington celebrates the 4th of July on the 3rd. We rode our bikes down to the waterfront after dinner. I had picked up some lights to put on our bikes for the return ride.

There were inflatable obstacle courses and bouncy houses.

We added ice cream into the mix.

Before the fireworks start there is an airplane show that is pretty cool. The plane is turning and twisting.

We rode our bikes home after the fireworks show and comforted our poor Cabbie who has only been known to bark at a few things shiny reflections of light... and fireworks.

Fourth of July... well OK it was the Third

Burlington celebrates their Fourth of July on the third. No one really seems to know the official reason for this. We all just figure it must be so that the smaller towns can have their fireworks on the fourth and not be dwarfed by Burlington's. It seems to make sense, and we all just go along with that. This was the first year in a wile that the girls and I have been in town for the celebration. We have been in Maine the last few years. Chloe tried to decorate herself for the occasion, but soon realized that look was more trouble than it was worth.We headed down to Battery Park first to take advantage of the free pony rides.
The we went down to Waterfront Park where they had lots of inflatable bouncy things for kids to play on. The lines were huge for some things, but the kids did a nice job of waiting and really the lines moved along pretty smoothly.

This is the only picture I have of Chloe on the obstacle course. She flew over things faster than I could get pictures.

If you look closely at the legs in the bouncy house you will see a purple dress with pink seahorses and a blue and white dress.

I didn't bother to take pictures of the fireworks. I have never figured out why people do that. They kind of loose the cool effect by not being directly under them. We had a good time, and minus a panic melt down by Chloe over having to use the port-a-potty (which resulted in yelling by me) all went well. After the grand finale of fireworks there were about three small ones that went off and Alexa said, "They must have found some crumbs." She is so cute.

Everyone Loves a Parade

Being that today is the Fourth of July, the girls and I took the 8:20 ferry off the Island so we could attend the Bar Harbor Fourth of July Parade. I was informed by my sister Cherie about the parade, and it seemed like a fun activity. So, the girls and I met Cherie, Micheal, and Annabel in Bar Harbor. They are fortunate enough to have some friends who own a restaurant along the parade route and had staked out a view spot. They didn't seem to mind that we wormed our way in to their location.

The parade is put on by the Shiners. It is a really well done parade complete, of course, with a lot of small Shriner cars racing about. As a parent I was also thrilled that a lot of the "floats" were tossing candy/ trinkets to the kids and my kids got some! The last parade I took them too was the Mardi Gras parade in Burlington. The competition for the beads is so intense Chloe dissolved into tears. I think all of us involved in that outing were in need of some type of therapy to get over it. So needless to say it is nice when there is enough to go around.

After the parade and lunch we ventured over to the baseball field and checked out the seafood festival. The girls enjoyed the bouncy house. The best fundraiser by far was the car painting. Someone had driven their Chevrolet Cavalier onto a big tarp. The kids each purchased a cup of paint for .50 (complete with use of brush and smock) and went over to paint the car. It was great! The paint was poster paint with dish detergent mixed in and whenever the car got too covered they would bring a soapy rag over and clean a section off. The kids would start all over again. It was a great idea and they were all so into it. It was kind of hypnotic to watch.

I especially enjoyed listening to the announcer describe the "play by play" of the lobster races. They would race four lobsters at a time. Different businesses brought a lobster to race and people placed bets on them. It was hysterical, and it was all done to raise money for the Bar Harbor YWCA. It all had a very homey small town America feel to it.