Summerfest

We had a great time at Summerfest on Saturday night. As always, we went with our friend's who we love so much and are so grateful to have in our lives. We kind of have the same routine every year--but as we were sitting there for the parade, we realized that it's actually getting easier. This was the first year that we didn't have a little baby crawling around. It was actually kind of weird as Stephanie and I sat back on our (OK her) chairs and just let our bigger kids sit up front and close for the parade. We both realized that our little families are growing up and it was fun to be able to make a side by side comparission of this year and years past. This year, Sarah was really the only kid we had to keep a close focus on. The rest of the kids are old enough that we could trust them to get back and forth between us and their parade spot without any worries. We even sent the oldest three girls to the port-a-potty's by themselves this year! It really was kind of nice, it was not one of those parenting moments that you miss the days past and are wistful for the fun that the little kids create. There was no wishing back the years, and we were just all very grateful for the fact that our kids are growing up and are able to take care of themselves a bit more than they could before. If the truth be told, I am actually really looking forward to next year when Sarah is old enough to be in the big kid crowd and I don't have to worry about her quite as much. I think we lost her at least 3 times during the parade and fireworks and I'm just really looking forward to her growing out of the wandering off phase. Despite loosing Sarah, she really was so much fun at the parade and fireworks. She was in awe of everything that happened on the road in front of us for the parade. When each new float or attraction came our way, she would get this look of surprise and excitement on her face that was just too cute. She would let out an audible gasp with her mouth in a wide open circle then put here hand up over her mouth. It was so stinking cute and I loved having her on my lap for most of the parade. She loved all the floats, although the ones with mascots freaked her out a little bit--every time one of them came by she would get all clingy and say "scary" minus the c sound. This year we changed things up a little bit for fireworks and I LOVED IT!!! We have always watched the parade on the lawn of a closeby church and then trapsed down to the crowded park for fireworks. This year we opted to stay on the church lawn and watch from a couple blocks away--it was a decision that was a long time coming and I think it's a varriation to our Summerfest tradition that will probably stick--that is until our kids are old enough to not want to go with us at all--then I might start getting wistful for Summerfest days like this one!