Monday, July 05, 2010

4th of July Festivities




The 4th of July was a success. It started out wet. Minneapolis' meteorologists, in their infinite wisdom, were calling for an 80% chance of rain all day, so we ditched our plans to drive out to Lake Minnetonka for the day. Instead, I did our grocery shopping in the morning. We were planning on hitting the zoo after lunch, but it ended up turning into a gorgeous day. So we took the kids to Lake Nokomis...right near our house...to swim. We had a wonderful time building sandcastles, burying the kids in the sand, and otherwise getting sand in crevices that sand should never enter. It was a great day! Afterwards, we came home, gave each of the kids a quick bath. Ruanita and I have mastered what we call the "quick dip." Line them up, strip them down, plop them in the tub. A quick wash and they are out...moving on down the assembly line to the dressing department. Next! After baths we ordered pizza, had a pizza party on the floor in the living room, and watched Animal Planet: Hippo Versus Bull Shark. Yes...these are the kind of things we watch in my house. After dinner, my sister Jennifer came over to head to the fireworks.

We arrived at the fireworks WAY early...about 7:00pm...but we got prime parking. Sweet! We entertained the kids for three hours by snacking, playing cards, teaching Sophie and Nicky to play checkers, and basically letting them run around like idiots. Eventually, Sophie and Nicky had to potty. I walked them over to the restrooms at the Community Center building in the park. Of course, there was a line a mile long at the women's restroom. Apparently, there was one and only one stall. The line was not moving at all. I stood there for a long time, but decided to leave when the rather "colorful" characters in line in front of us began talking in language that my four-year-olds did not need to hear. I am not talking about curse words...I am sure they've heard those before. Rather, they were discussing things they had "sucked" and other various topics that I can't imagine discussing in public...much less in a crowded line in front of a bunch of children! Rather than saying anything to them...since I am non-confrontational by nature and, frankly, I think they could have (and would have) easily kicked my ass...the kids and I walked halfway across the park to a couple of port-a-potties. I thought there was no line when I looked across the park, but when we finally got there, there was a line about 10 people long. We waited patiently...somewhat. At least there was no inappropriate language. Actually, most of the people in line with us were speaking Spanish....so there could have very well been inappropriate language that I was just unaware of. But at least it was nothing my kids could understand. My kids had never been to a port-a-potty, so I warned them in advance that they are generally disgusting and stinky. Unfortunately, we had no choice. When it was finally our turn, Nicholas looked at me with his nose curled up and announced, "Momma, you were right. It STINKS in here!" But we did out business and finally rejoined the rest of our group on our blanket....a lovely 45 minutes after first leaving to go to the bathroom. Nice.

At that point, the begging began. Practically every parent in the park had purchased their child a fluorescent, glow-in-the-dark light saber that were being sold by wandering vendors. Of course, all of the children in the park were loudly reenacting scenes from Star Wars and our poor children were feeling very left out of the ruckus. Unfortunately, Ruanita and I had not brought a single dollar in cash with us. More than likely, we would have still refused to spend $10 apiece for cheap plastic light sabers, but we could have at least appeased the kids with some mini donuts or ice-cold frozen lemonade. Yea...cash would have been a good idea.

Finally, at about 10:00pm, after hours of THE BEST people-watching to be found in the Twin Cities, the fireworks began. Much to our chagrin, we discovered that we had done it again. We had continued that grand tradition of finding the largest, most obstructive tree in the park and planting our blankets right behind it. That's right...YET AGAIN, we watched the fireworks through a huge tree. It's become a tradition. Every year, we go to the part intent on finding that perfect viewing spot. This year, we were there three hours early and had our pick of any spot in the entire park. We staked our claim...picked out our prime piece of real estate....confident that we would have a perfect view of the fireworks. Of course, that was not to be. The fireworks shot off to the right of where we thought they would be. Smack dab right behind the two tallest tress in the park. But the kids enjoyed the booming fireworks anyway. It was kind of cool the way the fireworks made the trees look as though they were ablaze. So it wasn't a total loss. At least it only took us about two minutes to get to our car when it was over...and we got to drive right past all the poor souls who had to walk three blocks to their cars. Sweet!

All in all, we had a great 4th of July. Next year, we will shoot for having cash in our pockets and an unobstructed view. Then again, if history tells us anything, I am sure we will be sitting on our blanket penniless, enjoying the fireworks from behind the branches of a giant oak tree next year, as usual. At least we're consistent!

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