A Magical Night with a Bit of Fright

4th of July was awesome! I actually didn't write for the entire day and spent it with family. In the early morning Hubby and I gathered up the boys since we were all going to be in a parade. My oldest son, Christian is a Boy Scout and theme for this year was Scouts & Family and the Scouts were celebrating 100 years.

Chris in his Scout Uniform

So we had to dress in patriotic colors and we carried little flags while pulling our youngest boys (ages 5 and 2) in a wagon. It was a lot of fun, even though it felt like 1,000 degrees outside. We walked for 1.7 miles, with the Fire Truck leading the way, who then got a call and sped away.

Yes, my 12yo is almost as tall as me. And yes, I do wear a type of flower in my hair on a daily basis just like one of my characters in GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLS ROOM!

My little Sammy, 2yo.

My 5yo Alexander, either squinting against the sun or blinking. Either way, he has amazing blue eyes :)

Also in the parade were the old vintage cars--So cool! Dance groups, Karate groups, and so many cute dogs! They were encouraging people to adopt a pet and they dressed them up.

Hard to see, but there's a dog in the passenger seat. Better than the drivers seat, right?

Yes, he is a convict.

After that, being the old person I am (I won't say my age but i'm over 31 and under 33) I had to take a nap. Seriously, I don't have energy like I used to. Later we had a BBQ with fam and friends, then we went to see a fireworks show, which was so great! The only downside was this:

We laid the blanket out on the grass. The sun just went down. The darkness covered us like a blanket. A certain chill of excitment ran through us as we looked up, waiting for sparks and glitter to magically light up the nighttime sky. My 2yr old sitting in my lap, grasping tightly onto my hands saying "now mama, now mama.” It warms my heart as it takes me back to the days when I was kid, that now I get to share the same traditions with my kids. I couldn’t smile any bigger or be any happier, until…

WHACK!!!!

Something smacked me in the head. Hard. I scream, as usual. Not good to do this around kids though. So I try to play it off like I was laughing, which worked unitl I look up and see these…these…bugs? There’s not much light but I definitely see wings and I see these things zooming at my head, diving bombing me. Yes, my biggest fear ever is moths, but it has progressed to anything ANYTHING with wings. When people say “when pigs fly,” I shiver at the very thought. So I’m dodging these hard hitting bugs with my eyes closed (is this possible?) and one of my friends say “eww, they’re in my hair.” What kind of bugs are these? They say they’re June Bugs. WTH is a June Bug?? My mom screams “They’re nighttime bees!” Yes, her major fear since she was a child is…you guessed it, bees. So she’s freaking out. Has anyone ever heard of nighttime bee?!

So we endured this frightening end of the night until the firework show started, and that seemed to scare off the bugs. Well, most of them. I did hear my mom say “OW!” during the show and when I asked what happened she said “one of those bugs hit me in the eye. It felt like a rock.” So I scooted away from her, just a little and looked in the opposite direction to watch the magical show with my boys.