July 4th

4th of July fun this year:

Jacob painting for the first time. I wanted him to do a handprint picture first, and at first he liked the paint on his hands, but after I tried to put them on the paper, he was no longer happy with his messy sticky hands and cried until he got to play with the water I put in the cups for his brother and sisters to paint. I did manage to get a handprint picture and another where he finger painted a few things. Leah, Andrew & Abi painted flags & fireworks.

I bought a mix to make elephant ears (fried bread dough/ whatever you call it in your neck of the woods), a fun summer/ fair-type food and the kids helped roll them out & add sugar. They loved them! It was really fun and so tasty. (See, even Jacob got in on the action.)

For the third year in a row we went to the Bristol parade with a couple from church. It is the largest in Vermont. This year wasn't as exciting as year's past. We also didn't get a great seat because we waited too long to sit down after walking around at the playground & other things set up for the holiday. Jacob also HATES being out in the hot sun if he just has to sit, so he cried most of the time and Brett & took turns holding him in the little bit of shade we could find.

Later that night we all did our usual sparklers on the porch in our jammies.