July 4th Celebrations

Ever since we moved into this neighborhood, everyone here kept asking if we had ever celebrated a July 4th here.  Well, the time has finally come to see what the fuss is all about :-)

With July 4th landing on a Tuesday this year, the celebrations started on Saturday.  But not without volunteers within the neighborhood/community - setting up tents and tables and chairs. So, obviously I dragged Bobby and the boys to help out. He he! 

The first thing on Sunday morning was the Fishing Derby.  And Charlie was all over this one!!  Even with it raining pretty hard that morning:

Supposedly it was canceled because of the rain but seems that there were still kids heading out to fish.  The committee definitely underestimated these neighborhood kids. LOL!!  Well, the judges did finally come by and show was back on!  

It was a 2-hr derby and after about an hour, I decided to go check on Charlie.  This kid was soaked from head to toe, wearing a rain-resistant jacket versus wearing an actual rain jacket.  Ha!  So I'm glad I brought him a t-shirt to change into as well.

So much rain lately:

Here's Bobby's take on it. Ha ha!

And here's Charlie - totally drenched:

But guess what, Charlie actually won for Biggest Catch! 

I don't have the photo of the fish though - it's on Charlie's phone. I'll have to eventually get it from him.

In the meantime, looks like all our golf umbrellas are finally coming in handy in this wet weather:

Here's my view for Sunday afternoon as well as Tuesday morning.  I'm helping out at the Merchandise table:

And so glad it's nice and dry on Sunday.  That's the beach area to the right - where all the umbrellas are set up:

Graham decided to join in on the Sand Castle building competition:

This kid didn't put any sunscreen on and so I'm glad I got to him when I did!  

I'm not so sure if this is a "castle" per se:

I'm just glad this girl didn't ruin his castle before it was actually judged.  She stood right in the middle of it. Ha!

And look, Graham came in 3rd!  

This was the best photo I could take because everyone was trying to get in some order, for the Tug-of-War.  And so all those sand castles that were previously built were all leveled over so no one trips in the sand.  

It's amazing how so many people participate in all the activities!

Tug-of-war was so much fun - kids vs adults, adults East/South vs North/West, kids vs Life guards.  And I was wondering why my arm and legs were hurting to much the next day.  LOL!! By the way, the kids won both their wars versus adults and vs life guards. How about that!

And then, the kayak race.  This is the starting point - under the bridge.  We have learned quickly that the ones on the bridge are dumping water on those in the kayak below:

And there's Graham to the left, off the side of the lake - with his water gun, squirting the kayakers.  That will be me next year, squirting the kids. He he!

And they are off!

And then, there's also the canoe race for the older kids and adults.  I almost joined up with another mom here on our canoe but she changed her mind at the end.  Next year!!

 What a day of events!  And everything is run by volunteers.  Amazing!

And here's us, Tuesday morning.  Happy July 4th everyone!

Thankfully the parade didn't start too early.  I would have still been asleep. LOL!  

Here they come!

So great to see the police involved:

And the fire department:

And the neighbors!  This crew was quite creative with the "Boston Tea Party":

Check out this cool car!

And this car even had a dog in the passenger seat - totally enjoying the ride:

Last but not least, to end the day, Graham was busy with playing Bingo:

He won a whole bunch of cards and picked out prizes for himself and also for Daddy, Charlie, and me.  Awww, Graham is so sweet!

Well, this was quite the July 4th for sure!  

We are missing our friends from last year, in California though.  Here are some photos from that day, which I didn't get a chance to post yet.  Here's the crew at Portuguese Bend Beach:

If only I had this much energy to run around on the sand:

Charlie (left) and Graham - with their fairly long hairs by then:

Always time for S'mores!!

All the kids did so well with this "rock garden".  And of course, Graham couldn't help himself but to make sure he handled one of those bigger rocks:

Lovely memories of our time back in CA!