our capitol fourth

we started out our capitol fourth in the capitol ward for the somewhat traditional bishopric pancake breakfast. I think the kids all had a great time, especially getting their faces painted, Afton got fireworks, Malachi got stars, and Rayna was a red/white/blue whiskered kitty with glitter. I'm pretty sure we all met some new people too, so success for us. that afternoon I'd promised the kids they could make bald eagle cookies, similar to an idea we saw in a magazine, though we couldn't find coconut so our 'feathers' are just frosting, and we liked almonds for the beaks and toffee candies for the brown feathers... if you click on the picture to make it bigger, I think it's a little easier to tell what they are ;)

after all three kids took real naps, we were excited to hit the road and find us some fireworks. we didn't want to be too close, because Rayna and Chi are both a little nervous if they are too loud, and I didn't want to try to hold both of them at once, so we found a place shooting fireworks a little farther from DC--and presumably not quite as busy/scary. then we found a park about a mile from the site where they were going to shoot them, and tried to drive there... unfortunately, that park was completely closed, and not knowing the area at all (and without GPS), I just picked a road at random and drove closer to where the fireworks were supposed to be going off. not quite half a mile down the road was a new housing development that still was obviously under construction, but it had a great playground and pond out front, so we parked there and decided it would do! there was one other family there, but they didn't look like they were planning on watching the fireworks, and they actually left shortly after we arrived, then about a half hour later, we could hear the police bullhorns announcing no more parking just to the south of us, and suddenly people started streaming into the park by us, there were probably over a hundred people that stayed at the park to watch, and a dozen other cars where the people parked and walked down closer to the stadium.

it turns out we picked a prime location! the kids had a blast at the playground, which was certainly the best we've found so far (we've seen 2 rather dismal 'playgrounds' close to our house, but haven't yet found anything worth returning to), and when they got bored we took a nature walk around the pond.

Malachi was probably the happiest to find a real playground, he LOVES playing at a park, and has missed it more than the girls.

Emalie dared Afton to climb to the top of this wall, which took her approximately 12 seconds...

Rayna also had a blast! she was very happy to be outside (which I assure you is only because she had a good nap!)

on our nature walk we saw quite a number of these 'dime' frogs, we had them all over the park near our house in TX, so the kids were all used to them and quite proficient at catching them, but Emalie is not really a frog-person, so she'd never held a frog before! the kids were shocked and quickly remedied that situation,

Emalie's first frog

and Afton managed to catch a grasshopper and keep it happy long enough for me to turn the camera on! also a major success, she loves grasshoppers, but they are usually too fast to hop away!

I didn't actually get any pictures of the fireworks, but it turns out we had an absolutely ideal location, we could see most of three shows. Afton was completely over the moon, and on top of the monkey bars, the better to view the fireworks, her only trouble was picking a direction to look! Rayna was happy at first, but decided her favorite vantage point was from inside the van, so she watched through the window for the second half of the show. ironically, the show we came to watch was the shortest, so it turns out staying farther north was the better idea, in fact, as far as Emalie and I could tell, one of the other shows that we could see was probably lit from the first park we tried to stop at! Malachi did well, he was afraid the fireworks would suddenly get louder, but he was fairly content to sit with me. really, I think he was just tired, even when he has a nap he's usually in bed before 9, and the shows started around 9:15. I was mostly just proud of myself for getting out of the house and doing something fun and exciting even without Paul! this is going to be a l-o-n-g month...

 

we sure do love our nation though, and we're excited to be living so close to the capitol. we're getting out just enough to learn our way around, so we're getting ready for visitors :).

 

Happy Independence Day!!!