The Fourth of July comes to Litchfield Avenue! Our little slice of Mayberry takes Independence Day very seriously. I mean, there are town hall meetings (that's right - meetings, plural) to debate the hotly contested bounce-house vs. water slide issue for Christ's sake.
This year the festivities kicked off with a community breakfast on our front yard before everyone boarded their red, white and blue festooned vehicle of choice for the neighborhood parade. (My absolute favorite part of the parade is the fact that nobody is watching the parade because everyone is in the parade. Cracks me up every time.)
Abby and Kailey in the Old Glory Mobile
The girls climbed aboard the Ameri-wagon and were ready to be tooled around the block for the big parade. Navigating around the bikes, trikes, scooters, wagons and pedestrians is always kind of comical, but I love the ye olde timey-ness of it all. There was one special stop this year as the entire parade paused long enough to serenade "Happy Birthday" to a 93 year old man who was watching along the route. A very sweet moment for everyone involved.
Idyllic slice of Americana
After the parade, the real fun begins with a good old fashioned block party with tons of activities for the kids. Every hour there was an event or contest hosted by a different family on the block, with some going on all day long. The kids enjoyed hours of Foosball, face painting, ping pong, water sliding and even a dunk tank.
Dana on face painting
The Lauritsens ran the wildly popular donut eating contest.
This Rockwellian shot sums it up!
The girls enjoying home made slushies
Brad and my event was the Second Annual Mixing Bowl - a bake off for those who are out for blood. This year we stepped up our game and created a trophy to be passed on from winner to winner every year. We had a great turn out of entrants, although, come to think of it, the majority of them don't actually reside on Litchfield. Hmmm...
The highly coveted Mixing Bowl Trophy
The entries
The ultimate sampler platter
Esteemed panel of judges
And the winner is.... Tony Parise! Tony came in second last year, but brought his A game this time with his delicious home made cream puffs to take the victory. Congrats!
The winners' circle
The Fourth of July is an all day extravaganza of games and good times with neighbors, family and friends. The sense of community and camaraderie is like nothing I've ever experienced before, as I grew up on a street where I couldn't tell you my neighbors' names. So I especially appreciate how rare and wonderful this community is and how lucky I feel to be raising a child who will never know life any other way. We are very, very fortunate to live where we do and holidays like the Fourth just magnify all of the reasons why.
Happy Fourth!
Yeah it does.
