Best Fourth of July Ever - Reason #3

So... Balloon Fest, Parade, then COLONIAL FEST.  Busy day so far!  We didn't know what we were in for, but when I read about the "free four-day event for the whole family, featuring a gathering of Colonial artisans, military exhibits, and period craftsmen and women," I just knew we had to check it out.  We were not disappointed!  It was a miniature Williamsburg, VA set up at Scera Park in the middle of Orem.  We were only there for an hour and a half and check out everything we saw/did.

It's not the Fourth of July until the kids get to perform some manual labor.
They both wanted to try this.  Really.

Jack was sad that he didn't get to make rope,
but the woman was only letting the older kids help.

Cat was really eager to get to go to school, but we didn't realize there would be a line, and she was at the end of it. So she had to sit on the boys' side of the school, and there weren't enough bonnets for the last of the girls.  :-(

Making letters (see Colonial letter chart below)

Listening to the math question.

Obediently writing the answer on her slate.

Answering the question, "Who is this a portrait of?"  (See below.)
Do you know?

Cat guessed George Washington, which is a pretty good guess from an upcoming 2nd grader I think. The right answer is King George III.  George Washington was painted to look like King George.  Tricky.

There's a bonnet!

We saw craftsmen doing demonstrations, and some who were just displaying items.
How cool is that broom?

I thought the wooden utensil maker was the coolest.
He brought several things he was selling and they were just beautiful.

Trying on Colonial dresses was a highlight for the girls... 

but Jack was absolutely beaming when he donned this armor.
The sword seemed to be his favorite item.
Look at that face!

We all had fun playing this simple marble game.
I'm thinking Ben should make us one of these for Christmas. Should be pretty easy, right? 

I thought it was cool that all of the soldiers were in different types of uniforms. And they were happy to explain to you whether they were from the frontier, the King's Army, a militia, etc.  Interesting.

After watching the soldiers drill for a few minutes Eliza insisted on talking to them.
They didnt seem to mind taking some time to dote on her.

Shortly before we left, Ben and Jack finally broke away to play on the playground for a bit.
Jack had been asking for a little while, but we were trying to keep our stay in Aubins Grove as short as possible,
so we were holding him off.  I'm glad he got a little time to play, though.

Before we left Ben offered to splurge on some little treats that were being baked in a brick oven on site.
He got a slice of  fresh sourdough bread and a few cookies for $2.  Well spent.
While Ben and Jack waited in line, Cat churned some butter. 

At this point in the day, I was on Cloud Nine.  How many cool, unique, patriotic, educational, and free activities can you fit into one day?  And it was lovely to have kids old enough to handle being out for almost 8 hours straight and all of us were still having a good time.  That's not to say we weren't tired.  But we had the perfect arrangement of a free afternoon to do this...

before the evening festivities began.  I decided to get the cupcakes and things ready for the BBQ instead of napping.  I did enjoy the quiet, though.

Best Fourth of July Ever - Reason #2

As I said before, we had four days' worth of adventures on the Fourth of July.  As soon as we were finished at the Balloon Fest we walked to University Avenue with our friends.  We arrived just before the parade started at 9am.  People lay out blankets and section off portions of grass days in advance, so we weren't sure if we were going to find a decent place to sit.  We did find a place with a pretty good view, but it came with the catch of facing the sun the entire time... we were pretty warm.  But it was a good parade, and the kids enjoyed it, so we endured.

What a good looking family.  Are the father and son wearing matching shirts?
Wow. They must be really cool.

Hold on to your hats, folks.  This is gonna be good.

Colonial soldiers

Llamas!

Native Americans

Miniature rail car being pulled by a large tractor

"Meet Me at the Fair"

The Jetsons - one of several balloons

No Fourth of July parade is complete without an undertaker riding past. 

U of U float - yes, it was boo'ed, even though I thought it was pretty cool.

Something I can honestly say I've never seen before - a group of mounted gymnasts. Only in Utah? 

The floats carrying the city royalty from around Utah County were the prettiest.  Except for Lehi.  They must have missed the memo.  We're going for glitz and glitter, not cowboys and rodeo clowns, people.

Eliza's favorite was the Madagascar-themed Primary Children's Medical Center float.
And she'd never seen a Madagascar movie...

I got a kick out of the variety of musical floats, and of course I loved the pipe & drum groups and the marching bands. 

Hi, fire engine!

Miscellaneous famous people -
top - Stephanie Nielsen of the Nie Nie dialogues was the grand marshal (I don't follow her blog, but I searched and saw that she blogged about it here)
middle - US Senator Orrin Hatch and his wife Elaine
bottom - Utah Governor Gary Herbert and his family

The kids had a really good time.  We contemplated leaving early because it was hot and we were running out of water, but they really wanted to stay until the end.  I'm so glad they enjoyed it!

Best 4th of July Ever - Reason #1

We seriously had 4 days' worth of adventures on the 4th of July.  This is the place to be.  They really do it right here.

The first adventure: The Provo Hot Air Balloon Fest

This was an early morning thing, but we thought it would be worth it.  How often do you get to be up close and personal with hot air balloons?  So we all woke up at 6am, ate a little something, then drove to our friend's house who lives close to where the balloons were launching.  We met up with our friends Curt and Holly and walked to the field by the hospital where the balloon launch was being held.  It started at 6:30 and we got there at 6:40.  This is what we saw...

 A field of partially inflated balloons.

6:42 

 6:43

Jack and Eliza weren't quite sure what to make of all of this - enormous balloons and tons of people at a seriously early time of day - so Cat and I explored for a few minutes.  We ended up by the piggy bank balloon right as they decided to depart.  That fire is hot!

 6:46

 6:48

6:52

And the piggy bank takes the lead! 

6:54 

So the launching all happened pretty quickly, and we thought that was the end of the event.

But NO!  There's MORE!  From the event website:

Keeping in the tradition of the Balloon Fest, pilots will again participate in the Hare and the Hound competition where “hound” balloons try to drop bean bags onto a target laid out by the “hare.” They can obtain additional points through jousting as they attempt to pop large balloons with sharp sticks 200 to 300 feet above the ground. Top pilots from around the nation come to compete in this unique and difficult event.

Trying to joust.

We sat around the field where one of the Hare and the Hound targets was laid out.

A couple of balloons came to drop bean bags but none of them hit the target.

In the meantime, this enormous Coca-Cola balloon was pretty entertaining. 

 We saw a few balloons touch down nearby and it looked like they'd landed on the street,

but we didn't hear cars honking, so maybe not?

The Balloon Fest was SO cool, and a fun and festive way to kick off our Fourth.

Stay tuned for Part 2... I know you're on the edge of your seats.

Cat's Birthday

For Cat's birthday this year she requested a beach party.  Great.  For the first time in her life we aren't living within 30 minutes of a beach on her birthday.  What better time to have a beach party?

Ashton, Ruby, Lily, Cat, Eliza, Grace, Hannah, and Jack

So Cat's "beach" party was at a sandy beachy area at nearby Utah Lake.

Unfortunately, this lake is pretty yucky due to pollution and a non-native fish 

species taking over.  The adults were a little grossed out being there, but the kids

didn't mind one bit.  In fact, most of the kids who came have asked me when we

can go back!  Umm.... never.

After playing at the lake for a while we all came back to the Summer House

to open gifts and enjoy some ice cream cone cupcakes topped with ice cream

(Cat's preference for homemade ice cream cake this year).

That night we had another little party for Cat as a family.

Lucky No. 7 got to blow out her candle twice in one day.

Gifts from the fam:

a doodle book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,

a chalk board box with chalk, and some new flip flops.

Then last of all, a new set of wheels!

She was thrilled.

Because of the many things going on the week of Cat's birthday, the bulk of her celebrating (above) was a couple of days early.  I left to take her to sleep-away Daisy Girl Scout camp on the morning of her actual birthday but didn't want the day to go un-commemorated so I made a special breakfast: homemade coffee cake.  This is actually the first request she made when I asked her what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday, but I didn't think that a bunch of 6-9 year olds would want to eat coffee cake at a birthday party.  It kind of worked out that I was able to make it for her that morning, just to show her that I wanted to.

Happy Birthday to Cat!

PS > Photos, links, and explanations of Cat's birthday projects can be found here.