Pausing for a quick picture before we headed down the road:
Showing her holiday spirit while waiting for the parade to come by:
Sam was the most excited about our neighbor, Autumn, and her chicken. She waited anxiously for them to come by and then joined in the parade with them.
Once we arrived at the park, we stopped for a family picture. We don't get to do that very often (I am usually the photographer), and jumped on the opportunity when one of our neighbors offered to take a picture of us.
They had lemonade and popsicles for all of us down at the park. Sam chose a green one, of course, because green is her favorite color.
And, as usual, Sophia did not want to be left-out!
After our popsicles were finished (or spilled on the ground by accident), we headed over where there was some much-appreciated shade. Sam got to decorate some cupcakes there.
And within a span of two milliseconds, Sam was already taste-testing them!
While Steve sat in the shade with Sophia, visiting with neighbors, I took Sam over to get her face painted (for the second time, ever!). She requested a fish, but Colleeen did something even more elaborate ...
She did a fishbowl, with a fish in it!
Shortly thereafter, we headed over to join in some of the games. In hindsight, it was poor planning to let her partake in a water game right after she got her face painted because it soon washed off!
Doing a water balloon toss with Daddy:
I tried to keep Sophia over in the shade as much as possible. Surprisingly, she was pretty content with that.
Using one of the poles of the tent for support:
The last thing that they had set-up for the kids was on the beach. The event coordinators had scattered over $30 in coins in the sand and water.
Sam managed to find a few coins, and they are now safe in her piggy bank!
Then, before we headed home (it was starting to get warm -- a high of 97 degrees for our holiday), Sam took a minute to rinse off in the water.
Needless to say, as soon as we got home, the girls were stripped down and bathed in the tub. Sam was covered in sand and Sophia just needed a chance to cool down and get into some fresh (less sweaty) clothes.
After a wardrobe change, Samantha found her dad's festive tie and put it on. I thought she looked so cute!
We let Samantha stay up to watch the fireworks with us that night. We have a spectacular view of them over the lake every year and Steve even did a few of them, himself, in the driveway.
While we waited for it to get dark, Steve shared his Gatorade with her, and she was so proud ...
All prepared with her earmuffs to muffle some of the louder fireworks:
I popped some popcorn, so that it would be a "true party."
Sam also entertained herself by catching fireflies, which seemed to be ever so abundant that night. (She would catch one in each hand and then bring them back to show me).
Some fireworks in our driveway; Sam would clap and cheer like it was a professional show!
Other fireworks across the lake:
We didn't get Samantha to bed until 11 pm that night (Sophia was in bed by 7 pm and slept through everything), so we decided to set Sam's clock back an hour. Our hope was that she would be able to sleep in a little bit and make up for the lost hours of sleep. Well, that plan was foiled because we had a bad storm move through in the middle of the night and we lost our power. Sam woke up at 6:30 am and came downstairs to tell me that "there were no numbers" on her clock. We ended up not having power until 8 pm on the 5th ...
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