July 4

We braved the crowds and took Eddie and Josie to the local Fourth of July parade--I didn't even know there was one until I had kids. Just as we were walking down the street towards the parade, this is what we saw--underdog, coming our way.
I knew the parade would be mostly lost on Josie, but that Eddie would like the balloons. Like is an understatement. He was mesmerized. He absolutely loved it. He and Den watched for over 1.5 hours. He'd get tired of being on Den's shoulders and get down for 10 seconds only to ask to be put right back up again.

We had a great spot right in the middle of 7th Avenue (literately in the crosswalk of the street) until a street musician started 'entertaining' us with his trumpet--which drowned out the music from the parade. The Police said they couldn't ask him to stop and I tried telling him that he was doing a nice job, but that I thought some people watching the parade were getting annoyed. He didn't bite, but did thank me for the compliment.





It was plenty warm out and Josie worked to drink from a water bottle--no desire for the sippy cup--guess she was cooled through evaporation.

Den is convinced that we had a post parade picnic next to someone who sang during the evening festivities. Josie and the couple's son (who looked to be about 5 or 6) were quite engaged.