4th of July at the Park -- Photo Essay

PHOTO ESSAY CONTEST 

Every year, our community celebrates the 4th of July with a day of fun in the park, hosted by our volunteer fire department.  The festivities start at noon and go throughout the day and late into the evening.  Our family was there for it all -- and I have more than 400 pictures to show for it, lol!!  No, I promise, I'm not going to subject you to all of them...... just a sampling to share our day with you!  Enjoy!  ;-)

 We started off the festivities at noon with the Flag Ceremony.  This is the color guard at attention while the flag is being raise.  The little boy you can barely see behind them played Taps once the flag was raised -- and he did an excellent job with his mellophone (at first I didn't realize it was him playing - I kept looking for the sound system or some adult playing - he was that good!).  Then our Fire Chief led those of us in attendance in the Pledge of Allegiance.  And finally, the cannon fires the signal that activities are "officially" open for the day!

The first activity of the day is the children's pagent.  It's basically a glorified baby contest, but the kids (and parents too, lol!!) have a blast dressing up in their red, white, and blue finery.  They are split into 5 age categories ranging from babies to teenagers and they are judged on presence and costume -- and general cuteness, of course!  :-)  There is always plenty of girls in the contest, but for some reason very few boys, lol....  But given that there are, one girl and one boy are crowned as the winners in each category and given their respective titles -- Little Miss/Mr. Sparkler (babies), Miss/Mr. Sparkler (toddlers), Little Miss/Mr. Firecracker (preschool & early elementary age), Miss/Mr. Firecracker (older children & preteens), and Miss/Mr. Fourth of July (teenagers).  Out of my kids, only my daughter wanted to enter, neither of the boys did this year, lol.  And of course, Leslie P. and her little sister both entered the contest as well. 

The pictures below are of Shea and Leslie before the pageant (left), Shea competing in her group (top right), and Leslie being introduced in her group (bottom right).

And this is Leslie with Shea again after Shea was crowned "Miss Firecracker"!!

Obviously this was a BIG hilite of her day! :-)

**See my other photo essay for details and more pictures of her winning :-)

Another big hit of the day was the "Muddy Munny Pit".  My husband was in charge of this - and let me tell you, it was a real mess of fun, lol!!  He and some other firemen set up the drop tank and filled it with about 6 inches of water.  Then they dumped in topsoil, mulch, and peat moss to make what basically looked like a big mud puddle.  When it was time to open it up, they gathered a crowd and while the kids all watched, they threw in more than $20 worth of coins -- quarters, dollars, and fifty cent pieces.  Then, any kid that had 4 tickets ($1 worth) and wanted to was allowed into the mud pit to search for the coins.  They had 3 minutes to look, and they got to keep whatever they found.  It was A LOT harder than it looked too!  Only a few kids actually found something. 

The pictures below are of the crowd gathering to get started (left) and my husband (yellow shirt) and another fireman friend waiting for more "customers" (right).

On the left are some ofhe kids that were searching the mud for coins.  See how muddy the kid on the right is??  He did a flying belly flop into the mud, lol!  Yes, he really did -- got a running start and dived right in, lol!  He was trying to get our fire chief muddy (the one sitting down in the white shirt).  I think it was a setup by the other firemen!!  ;-)

The picture below (left) is of 2 of my kids, Shea and Aaron searching the mud.  Yes, Miss Firecracker had to get in on the action too, lol!  Neither one of them actually found anything on that go 'round, though.  The coins that Aaron is holding (picture on the right) are the ones he found when he helped clean out the drop tank.  They let any kids that helped clean out the mud keep any coins they found :-).  He found 2 gold dollar coins and a fifty cent piece, so he was pretty excited!

Of course we had bingo and kids games going on throughout the day.  And for some reason, I never managed to get any pictures of those, lol.  I think I was helping in the consession stand when the kids games were going on.  But my oldest helped  "Uncle Sam" run those. 

I did, however, get a few shots of some friends doing karaoke!  You may recognize Miss Leslie P. in the picture on the left.... she is singing with her friend.  And the picture on the right is of some of our friends from church singing together.  I went over and sang with that group for a couple of songs as well -- but no one got proof of that, lol!!  Hahaha! ;-)

Of course, what Fourth of July celebration would be complete without food?!  And there was quite a variety available:  soup beans, BBQ sandwiches, cakes, pretzels....... and a few other favorites as well!

       Hot Dogs.....

           ......... and cotton candy......

  ........ Nachos and cheese      ....... foot long cups to drink sodas from    ...... and slushy icees too!

And of course, even the critters have to get in on the fun and be fed too!!  This is my brother-in-law sharing his ice cream with his new puppy, Bubbles :-)  As you can see, she really enjoyed it too, lol!!

And I know the critters had fun too..... cause by late afternoon, our chihuahua, Squirt, was so worn out she had to take a little nap, lol!

Now, in Indiana, it just wouldn't be the Fourth of July without some rain sometime in the day.  And this year was no exception.  We definitely got more than a little rain.  In fact, we had a major storm come through and attempt to drown us, lol.  You can see from the next 3 pictures just how hard it rained.  The second picture is showing how much rain is running off the shelter roof. 

And this picture is of my oldest, Michael, after he raced through the rain to the shelter, lol!

At least the storm allowed some time to sit and visit!  This is Shea sitting in her cousin Jazmyne's lap. My daughter is terrified of storms so Jaz was playing with her and trying to cheer her up.

After the storm, it was back to business as usual.  Well, except for a little "jail" time, lol!  Yet another of the fun things to do is pay a few dollars to put someone in jail - and see if someone will pay the bail to get them out again!  If not, well, they just have to serve their time :-)

This is my oldest, Michael, in jail.  And his friend who put him there "interrogating" him.  ;-)

These are a few of the teenage guys trying to climb the grease pole.  At the top there are 4 small plastic bags with $20 bills in them.  Climbers are allowed to work as a team to get someone to the top and grab the money.  But they are only allowed 3 people per team.  As you can see, even these fairly tall guys standing on top of each other doesn't get them close enough, so the top guy has to climb the pole - which happens to be covered in grease/shortening, lol.  I don't think anyone actually made it to the top this year, but usually one or two teams does manage to get up the slippery pole and collect the reward!

The evening came and my family continued to help out and have fun doing it.....

My husband, Patrick, and another fireman/friend had been setting things up for the fireworks display later that night.  But they had to come to the kitchen for a little break.... and a drink :-)

My helpful daughter had to come to the kitchen as well to help out for a while serving drinks that evening.   And then she got to help with the raffle drawing while the crowd was waiting for the fireworks to start.

As the crowd gathered for the fireworks display, my 13 year old, Michael, helped out by selling the red, white and blue glow necklaces and bracelets.  And we watched the sun set over the park -- hoping that the next storm coming in would take its time and wait till after the fireworks.  You can see the storm clouds in the distance in the lower part of the picture between the trees.

Sunset in the park........                                         ...... and the colors change as it gets later!

The storm was slow coming in, the sprinkling that had been off and on since the afternoon stopped, and it was finally dark enough to start the fireworks display.....

It was a wonderful display!  A colorful and beautiful ending to a fun-filled celebration of Independence!!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY/INDEPENDENCE DAY EVERYONE!!