Strawberries and Sparklies

The last weekend of June always seems to be jam-packed with summer fun around here, and this year was no exception. We started the weekend with Mequon's ridiculously-early Fourth of July celebration, and finished it with the Cedarburg Strawberry Festival, which is always a favorite of Elsa's.

Saturday morning was perfect parade weather. The parade was mercifully shorter than last year—it came in under an hour this year. Claire pointed out every "Belle Belle" that came along. (Every dog is now "Belle Belle." She used to say "daw daw," but lately they're all Belle to her.) And we got lots of candy, from everybody except the Tea Partiers—we refused their hand-outs. No liberal sense of entitlement here; they must have been thrilled at our self-reliance.

Elsa even got to see some of her friends from dance class participating in the parade. Elsa had the chance to be in the parade with them, but after much discussion we decided watching the parade was a better choice than being in it, at least for this year. I think it's probably one of those things that sounds more exciting than it actually is, and it might get old quickly for her (and as mentioned above, it's a long parade). When the truck went by and Elsa saw her friends, Bob and I said, "See, doesn't that look boring? They're just sitting there!" She wasn't convinced, so I have a feeling she'll be riding in it next year.

That night was the fireworks. Decision time again: Do we all go, even though Claire is normally sound asleep by 7 p.m., or does one of us take Elsa while the other stays home with Claire? Of course, Elsa always wants us to do things together, as a family, so we decided to give it a shot with Claire. We put her down for a "nap" at around 6:30 p.m. (just a half an hour before what is usually her bedtime!), then woke her up, hauled the poor thing out of bed, and arrived at the fireworks at around 8 p.m.

We bided our time before the fireworks with bubbles, ice cream, and another dance recital—this one choreographed by Elsa. She's got some interesting moves lately, including this one, in which she seems to be patting herself on the shoulder. She'd fit right in with the Charlie Brown kids.

Claire was delighted with the bubbles, screeching and giggling excitedly about every bubble that floated her way. Elsa chased them while Claire scootched around and poked at any that landed without popping. It was so cute and sweet.

And we actually made it through the entire fireworks display! Claire was a little antsy, to say the least, by the time the fireworks wrapped up at almost 10:30 p.m., but for the most part she was one happy kid (just like her shirt said). She enjoyed the fireworks that we waited about two hours to see ... for about 45 seconds, anyway. She laughed and pointed, then quickly grew bored and tried to scootch off the blanket. Seriously though, I am so thankful for Claire's flexibility. She almost always goes right to sleep, no matter when I put her in the crib, but she doesn't get overly cranky when sleeping isn't a possibility. Can't ask for more than that, especially after dealing with another kid who wasn't such a great sleeper!

Finally, Sunday was the Cedarburg Strawberry Festival. We ate ourselves silly: Chocolate-covered strawberries, strawberry sundays, strawberry shortcake, and ... roasted corn. Not strawberry-related, but something Daddy and Elsa always enjoy and take every opportunity to eat.

So we had a wonderful weekend, and it's really the kick-off of summer festival season for us. We've got German Fest, Irish Fest, the county fair, and the state fair coming up. And these girls are such a pleasure at events like this, so we love to go. There's lots more summer fun still to come!