Happy Independence Day

They were up in time to go to the church for a flag raising ceremony and breakfast... 

Next, we headed over to the park to save some space on the curb for the 4th of July parade and played at the playground while we waited for the fun to start.

Lovin' her red, white and blue outfit.

I took a seat on a park bench to rest and ended up next to a woman who is just in town visiting family. Guess where she's from- Arkansas. Our husbands ended up talking for the next half hour about corporate Wal mart/ Sams Club, exchanged information and it sounds like they may just be the connection we need to secure an excellent job in the very near future! God works in incredible ways, doesn't He? It was while we adults were chatting that our daughter disappeared... We obviously started searching for her right away; some other father carried her over, reuniting social toddler with frantic parents. God can apparently multi-task a lot better than we can!

The parade was as fun as parades are... We didn't love the loud sirens, but the dance team, cheer leaders, and marching band were a big hit with our little girl- anything with music! I was impressed with the gymnastic team and their awesome tricks and flips on their float. We were joined by some good friends who were nice enough to share their snacks!

After the parade we came home for nap time, but headed out again as soon as little one was awake. We live a block away from the social gem of our town. (This sucks when crazy college kids light off fireworks in the park and speed away in the middle of the night all nights leading up to today...) But, most of the time our location is splendid. Like today. There were booths set up for the 4th of July festivities; we grabbed some ice cream and settled down to watch people ride the mechanical bull. Silly me, I figured that with so much else going on our daughter wouldn't get excited over the park's splash park. I was wrong- thus the onesie instead of cute, hot pink, ruffled swimsuit in the following pictures. She just loves water! Hubby has some excellent professors who have cancelled class tomorrow too in honor of the holiday, so we're going to head to the outdoor swimming pool/ water park. Going to be fun!