Happy 4th Of July!

We had a great 4th of July here in Philly, even though it was a bit on the cold and rainy side. Jeff had the day off which was a bonus. In the morning we took the boys to the park to play. They're so funny, when we get to the park, they're a lot more excited about chasing all the birds and rabbits they happen to see than the actual playground. They had a great time though. Afterwards we picked up a Philly favorite, Rita's Water Ice. Actually we got gelati's, and they were delicious! I've been craving one of those for a while now!

We enjoyed the day at home until around 5 when we took off to go downtown. We stopped for some cheesesteaks for dinner & headed into center city. It's sure nice now that Jeff is a resident at the hospital because he gets free parking in the garage. Always an added bonus! We walked down to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and caught the rest of the parade, it was neat but a little disappointing due to the fact that the parade was televised so it would stop every 5 minutes for a 10 minute delay. That's okay except when you're staring at the 'tour bus' section for 10 minutes!

After the parade we walked around just looking at everything that was going on with booths, prizes, food, games, etc. We found a nice little place along the parkway, near a baseball field where we were planning on watching the fireworks from. The boys entertained themselves by chasing and catching fireflies. Jacob had a nice little collection by the time he was done, we had a clear bottle that he could put them in and he thought that was just about the coolest thing ever. Originally we had planned to just sit out and wait until 10:30 for the fireworks. Unfortunately the weather had other plans. It had rained on and off throughout the day, but the real storm was just beginning. It was about 8:00 when we got to the field, and by 8:30 it had really started to rain, we're not talking nice little spring showers, I'm talking a complete soak-you-in-2-minutes downpour complete with gusting winds, and of course thunder & lightening. After hiding out under the trees for 30 minutes, we decided it just wasn't worth it and headed back to the car. Kind of disappointing, since the fireworks here are absolutely amazing, but with 2 kids and almost 2 more hours to wait in the rain (it rained hard all night), we decided to head & just pick up a treat on the way home. Then they boys went to bed and Jeff & I stayed up to watch a movie.

Even with the events turning out the way they did, we had a pretty fun 4th of July. The boys were great sports through everything and didn't complain once in the rain. More than anything it was just fun to be together. So although it wasn't the 4th of July I had hoped for, it turned out pretty good!

Here's a shot of what the fireworks looked like last year!