That night we gathered with our Community Group to watch fireworks at a country club. It was past the girls' bedtimes but they did well and had a lot of fun with their friends Emma and Julia.
While waiting we have fun with some sparklers.
I tried to get Katherine to write her name for a cool picture but instead we got a cool circle.
Caroline enjoyed the candy that was thrown from the floats.
After the larger neighborhood parade, we go to our small neighborhood parade and picnic. This has been a tradition in our subdivision for a long time. All of the kids decorate their bikes and wagons. This year the crowd was much smaller, I think due to the rain in the forecast.
Katherine rode her big girl bike and her friend Grace rode our tricycle. I think she has outgrown it.
Sam carried Caroline and her friend Violet in the wagon. Caroline wanted to ride her tricycle so she was not happy.
Our crew of 4 kids was a disaster. For some reason they were having a hard time. The parade goes around a circle so after a few houses we turned around to meet the parade back at the beginning.
The local fire truck always leads the parade.
The girls were only slightly curious about the fire truck. I could not get them to all look at the camera at the same time.
Katherine and her sweet friend Grace enjoyed spending the day together. Grace moved out of state the next week so we were soaking up all the time we could get.
We made rainbow cupcakes that I saw in Family Fun. You added food coloring to white cake batter and then layered it. It was not hard but very time consuming.
Katherine enjoyed mixing the colors and we learned about which primary colors make each of the secondary colors.
I was not a perfectionist about getting the layers even and smooth.
The final result. I guess that it shows that I was not a perfectionist with the layers but I did not hear any complaints from the preschoolers.
Unfortunately, Katherine did not actually get to eat one on St. Patrick's Day because she lost that privilege. So, we ate cupcakes today for breakfast - after eating a full serving of eggs and English muffin.
First we melted candy melts and added food coloring. I could have bought them already green but I did not know if we would use them all and thought white could be used for something else later.
Then we got pretzels and arranged them to look like shamrocks.
You could also use a long stick pretzel for the stem but I don't actually like pretzels much and did not want to have a lot of extra.
Then you spread the melted candy over the center part of the pretzels. You don't need to cover it, just enough to hold all of the pieces together.
He also bought supplies for us to make chocolate fondue. He and I ate at a fondue restaurant a few weeks ago and talked about how it would be fun to do with the girls. We got out our fondue pot that we received as a wedding gift 7 years ago and used it for the first time. We were a little nervous about the hot surface and sharp fondue forks so one it was melted everyone had their own bowl of chocolate.
Fondue made a huge mess but the everyone loved it and had a lot of fun.
She got all dressed up in her velvet dress and cape which was a special treat for a girl who always wants to wear fancy dresses. During intermission we went to the lobby and arrived right when 2 of the ballet dancers came out to take photos.
This production was perfect for Katherine. It was put on by one of the ballet schools in town and with the exception of a handful of professional dancers it was kids from 1-12 grade. The audience was full of young kids. I look forward to making this an annual tradition.
