Those who know me well, know that the 4th of July is one of my absolute FAVORITE holidays. This love comes from all my fond childhood memories. Bare with me a moment as I travel down memory lane. As chance would have it, there are a lot of July birthdays in my mom's extended family, also as chance would have it my mom's Aunt Iris and Uncle Stan lived but minutes away from where the Bryan fireworks used to be shot off. So every year Aunt Iris and Uncle Stan would host a 4th of July party. There was always GREAT food, tons of fun family members, and a HUGE cake for all of the July birthdays. The cake would have all the names of the family members with July birthdays - and your piece of cake, assuming you had a July birthday, was always your full name - this is where it REALLY paid to have an eight letter name let me tell you.
Anyway, when it came time for fireworks, all those young enough would make the trek to our annual watching spot. We were always as close to the roped off area as we were allowed to get, and then we would watch the Farkles and Bangs - not sure when that term originated, but that is what we called fireworks. It seems so simple now - but that day every year really brought me so much joy!
All that to say, I really enjoy spending the day with family, so it was SO nice to have Betsy and James there to enjoy it with. It is also nice that we have moved to a town that really appreciates the 4th, even devoting a whole website to the event. Highlight of the day are a 2-3 hour parade and fireworks over Lake Michigan - SO spectacular. Last year we enjoyed the festivities with my parents, sister, brother, and niece - they were all here helping us move. The day was gorgeous and blistering hot - so as not to have a repeat of last years heat wave misery - I packed plenty of water...but no umbrellas. It started sprinkling on our walk to the parade and then continued to sprinkle and rain continuously through out.
Parade highlights:
Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias - he is known to play hoops with President Obama
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn - took over after Blago was ousted
Old Clown Lady
Library precision cart team
North End Bunco, Parchesi, and Weight Dropping Auxillary
Parade disappointments:
Jesse White tumblers - they just rode past in a van because of the rain, no tumbling
Lack of hand outs - seriously the only hand outs were from the Amy G Salon - and by the time they made it to us they had ONE piece of candy left...they gave it to a kid next to us.
Not taking my camera
Delayed start - we saw -2 go past 4 or 5 times (yes the line up started with -2)
Rain/forgetting umbrellas even after James reminded us
Sitting through the whole thing
Fortunately the rain stopped at the end of the parade and didn't start up again, so the fireworks were not canceled. It was a little disappointing though, because we normally watch the fireworks from the sandy beach, but due to the rain opted for the asphalt trail instead this year. So the normal beauty of seeing the fireworks reflected off the lake was blocked by a pier. But even with all that it was a good show.
Unfortunately, the rain wasn't the only thing that made this weekend wet. For those that don't know Fran is the epitome of a scaredy cat. I mean if Andrew or I sneeze she runs for the hills! Now we are used to her not coming downstairs when we have company, but she will still come down occasionally to eat and do her litter box business.
This weekend was a different story all together! We aren't sure what got into her (our best guess is that she could smell Betsy and James' dog on their stuff) but she didn't come down at all. Which means that at 4:00 am on Saturday AND Sunday morning, Fran decided to relieve herself on our bed. The first night I was awake to catch her in the act. The second night I woke up to Andrew saying "You've got to be kidding, not AGAIN. Michelle turn on your light!" Now I do not like to be woken from a nice sleep, but even less do I enjoy having to change my sheets at 4 in the morning. (It seemed like Andrew enjoyed it even less than I did.)
This is our duvet spread out to dry for the second day in a row. On a positive note, once Betsy and James left, Fran decided she could use her litter box again. Lesson learned, when we have visitors bring the litter box upstairs! While Betsy and James were here we also went to the Evanston Farmers' Market. While there we purchased some peonies.
Aren't they dreamy?
Also over the long weekend I made a pair of bloomers for Lily. They are to go with a cute little dress my sister made her. All in all they came out alright, here's hoping they fit!
