Let Freedom Ring!

On Saturday night, we decided to head to downtown Mesa for the 4th of July celebration and fireworks.  Kensley has been completely obsessed with Pippi Longstocking of late and wanted me to braid her hair like hers.  I was excited to give it a try, but also knew I had no intentions of making the braids stick out like Pippi and hoped Kensley would not be too disappointed with the outcome.  I am not that great with braiding and hair so I was thrilled with the results and Kensley stood still and patient throughtout the whole process.  She was a little sad that her braids didn't stick out, but got over it pretty quickly.  I had to get pictures from every angle to capture her cuteness. :o)

When we loaded in the car, the temperature was still about 107 degrees outside even though the sun was going down.  So, we made sure to pack lots of liquids to stay hydrated and as cool as possible.  Kensley was happy to tote Stephen's camelback on her back and had it in her mouth most of the night.

Last year they had these birds that you could pet and hold, but Kensley wouldn't go near them!  She is kind of a scaredy cat, but she was excited to pet them this year.

At one point, I decided it was time for a cool treat.  I was hot!  We spotted a little ice cream shop off the beaten path and decided to give it a shot.  They had otter pops for .25 so we got Pyper her very first otter pop and she ate the whole thing!

We kept Pyper in the stroller most of the night because she is a huge flight risk.  The second you put her down, she will take off running and doesn't even care what direction she is going.  When the fireworks were about to start, she was freaking out so we decided to let her out and she was excited!

Stephen put Pyper on his shoulders and she HATED it!  I was taking a picture of it while they were singing the National Anthem and right when I did some fireworks went off and I caught this great expression on Stephen's face!

Kensley thought the fireworks were way too loud!  So, I gave her some earplugs and that made her much happier throughout the night.

Pyper didn't even flinch or bat at eye when the fireworks started.  She spent most of the night in this position:

So, I mentioned earlier my fear of dehydration because of the extreme heat.  The heat was awful, too!  I think the high on Saturday was supposed to be 116 degrees!  Yuck!  Anyway, we packed lots of drinks like I said.  We gave Pyper a sippy cup with cold water and ice cubes that we kept filling up and also brought a bottle of milk packed in ice since the festivities would take us out after her bedtime.  Kensley was also constantly drinking from Stephen's camelback.  We were there for about 2 hours and during that time Kensley had to use the gross, discusting port-a-potties THREE times!  That is a big deal for anyone who knows anything about Kensley.  She usually holds it all night when port-a-potties are involved.  When she was using it, she said, "That wasn't scary at all....I was really brave!"  She was especially excited to use the hand sanitizer they had sitting outside of them, which by the way was hot liquid from the heat!  During the fireworks, I realized that Pyper's diaper was really wet and commented on it since I had changed her before we left.  Not two minutes after I said that, I felt warm liquid and realized she had pee'd again and it was leaking all over.  Gross!  When we got to the car, we stripped off her clothes and changed her diaper and drove home like this:

So, dehydrated, my kids definitely weren't!  When we got home, we had to change her diaper again before putting her to bed!

Kensley was also very ready for bed.

All in all, we had a good time and plan to participate in more fireworks celebrations on Monday, when it is the real 4th of July.  This is one of my favorite holidays and I LOVE fireworks....the louder the better! :o)