July The Fourth Weekend Celebration

One of Sarah's favorite things to do is to go grocery shopping with me, especially when there is a really cool grocery cart. We rarely go to the Kroger in Loganville, but when we do it is a special treat. It is a new Kroger with special "kid-size" grocery carts. So, Sarah loads up her "children" for the trip. On this particular visit, we were going for there special sale ($1.50/box) on "Honey Bunches of Oats" (our favorite cereal).
As a child, I remember having a blast preparing our golf-cart or bikes for the neighborhood Fourth of July parade. One year we put a huge inflatable whale on top of the golf-cart and a sign on it saying, "Have A Whale of A Fourth." Another year, my brother and I rode on the back of my dad's convertible. My mom made me a Statue of Liberty costume and my brother a Flag costume. I have very fond memories of this time of year. So, I wanted Sarah and Hannah to experience just a taste of it. After Mark got home from work on Friday, we loaded up the van and headed to Baba and Papa's house for the Fourth of July Celebration to begin.
We woke up early Saturday morning for the day's events to begin. Papa had already decorated the golf-cart, trailer, and red-flyer wagons. Yes, my father has farm animals in his backyard: bunnies, chickens, a rooster, and doves.
I am shocked that his neighbors have not called the authorities yet about his rooster, because it is an early riser!
The four of us on the back of the golf-cart.
Trey, Sarah, and Morgan ready for the parade to begin. Papa and Baba bought the grandkids matching outfits from Gymboree just for the festivities!!
Hannah wearing her coordinating Gymboree patriotic outfit!
The kids in position before we headed off to the pool for the parade to begin.
Here we are waiting for the parade to begin. We were lucky enough to be the first float. Not hard to do that when there were only 5 floats. The participation has lightened up a great deal since I was a kid. Our float won the "youngest participant" award, since we had Hannah on board.
After all of the parade festivities we all stayed at the pool for a neighborhood grill out. Mark, Sarah, Hannah, and Aunt Heather getting cooled off while waiting on the greased watermelon game.
Uncle Matt participated in the greased watermelon game. The lifeguard used Crisco to grease the watermelon and separated the age groups. Half the participants are on one side of the pool and half on the other side of the pool. Then, the watermelon was dropped in the middle of the deep end, and you have to get the watermelon to the opposite side of the pool. It makes for a great memory!

I am really glad we were able to drive down for the festivities! The girls, well Sarah, had a fabulous weekend of celebrating! Happy Fourth of July!!! I hope your 4th was a special one too!

Mark and I left the girls with my parents overnight, so we could go back to Atlanta to run the Peachtree Road Race on Sunday morning. We left home at 5:15 a.m., rode Marta to Buckhead for the race to begin. Mark started in wave C, and I started in wave F. We ran all the way to Piedmont Park 6.2 miles. I had an awesome experience and loved every minute of it - sounds bizarre I know. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the music along the way, the people lining the streets, and the water sprinklers. It was great fun experiencing the whole event with Mark. I found him afterward, and we walked around talking about how much we want to do it again next year while we were eating ice cream of course.