Happy Fourth of July!!!

Last night was the big fireworks display at Grant Park... but given that we didn't want to fight the huge crowds we made other arrangements. We were going to just walk over to the lakefront and watch from there with my friend, her daughter and her mother.

We had to stop and pick up some snacks on the way to meeting my friend at her house. It didn't take as long as I had thought it might, so we were about 20 minutes early. We decided to hang out at the park down the street until time.

Here is Clara... determined to shake Alex off of the bridge...
and Alex showing me that he finally has the spinning barrel thing down....
After getting there so early, we played for a bit and then ran into a Puggle owner and got the scoop on owning a Puggle... so of course, we ended up being late to my friend's house! :-)

Then we walked over to the lakefront and staked out a claim here...
The kids had energy to spare so my friend's mom wore them out with games of tag, charades and simon says... I'm not sure how she had that much energy... I sure don't! :-)

Finally it was 9:30 and time for the fireworks.... but there was nothing. The kids counted down from 10 over and over... but still nothing. It was about 9:45 before they actually started (or at least that we could see). But they were worth it...
The kids ooohhh'd and ahhhhh'd, clapped and cheered! It was a good time!

Not sure what we have planned for today... we have a few offers but after not getting the kids into bed until well after 11:00, I'm not sure I'm real motivated to do much of anything! :-)

Have a Happy and SAFE Fourth of July!!!