Hey Baby, It's the 4th of July!

OK. I know I'm pathetic. I don't need to be reminded. Seriously. Remember? I started this blog because I haven't gotten around to doing the "baby books". So my patheticness shouldn't come as a surprise. That said, HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

Now here in North Dallas, we start celebrating 4th of July a little early. It's not at all unusual to see fireworks displays the week leading up to the 4th. This is weird for the Washingtonian in me, but it happens every year...without fail. I don't know if it's because of the whole Texas-as-its-own-republic-thing or what, but they really aren't all that concerned about celebrating the 4th on the 4th around here.

Our festivities actually began with the neighborhood bike parade which took place on June 27th. (No comments on how this makes my blog post even more delinquent than it already is, thank you very much.) There's nothing like getting in the spirit a week early. Oh! And don't wait to buy your decorations until then, because there will be nothing left! Fortunately, we had plenty of patriotic trappings left from last year, so we rode in style.

We planned a pool-side get together for the 4th. One of the fun pre-party activities was making juicicles. Using a 1:1 orange juice to cranberry juice ratio with a couple of gummy worms dropped into each cicle. Yummy, sweet-n-sticky summer fun! We had plenty of qualified helpers. Too late for warnings now, but apparently, I forgot to have Jake wash his hands before we got started. Ick! Oh well, all's well that ends well...no death by juicicle claims were reported. Whew!

Just a few friends hanging around the pool. Adults were outnumbered by kids. WOW, how the parties have changed! We wore our patriotic best -- although Lila was not all that thrilled with her Stars & Bars bathing suit (what a surprise!)We walked up to the golf course to watched the fireworks -- no traffic or parking fiascoes for the grown-ups, and no big booms for the kiddos (i.e., Jake). Gladly the course sprinklers held off until the show was over -- but there was a moment there when we thought we might get wet. All said and done, I still miss 4th of July on the Mall, but it was a great way to spend a Saturday night in the suburbs.

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Credit where credit is due: That fantastic firework photo at the beginning of this post is by New Jersey photographer Paul Michael Kane. He has a great "photo of the day" blog where he gives you the details of how he creates each beautiful shot. Click here to check out his photography. It's really spectacular stuff!