Fireworks!

We had two days of Independence Day celebrations. Friday the 3rd we went to see fireworks with Aunt Niecey and Uncle Geoff and Parker in Lakeland. I wasn't sure how Evan would do since his bedtime is 8:00 and the fireworks didn't even START until 9 but I loaded him up with sugar and he was good to go! :) Evan and Parker had a blast running around and looking in the lake for fish and rolling down the hill of grass (or the grassy knoll as Denise called it...I had to keep looking for Kennedy's shooter! HA!). They were happily playing until the first BOOM of a firework went off. I have never seen two little boys jump so high and run so fast to their mommas as those two. It scared the bejesus out of them! Evan jumped in my lap and proceeded to squeeze the life out of me. I finally was able to pry him off and turn him around somewhat. I covered his ears as best i could with a napkin and after a while he calmed down and started to say "ooohhh, pretty!". You can see in this picture that he is watching them out of the corner of his eye and still has a pretty good hold on mama! Parker did good too.

The next day we went to the Dade City Sparklebration.....oooohhhh, sounds like a big to do huh??? not so much...well, they had entertainment and some bounce houses and some animals and some fair food. Evan went to the "petting zoo" if you can call it that and petted a baby chicken and a rabbit and got to see some sheep, a miniature pony, and ducks. I tried to take him on a pony ride and he threw a fit just as I was putting him on the pony so that was a no-go. He was so excited for the fireworks and had been asking me all day, "go see fireworks?" and I kept saying when it gets dark. so i thought, he's going to do just fine. But...when that first BOOM went off, same thing...he ran into my lap saying "no,no,no...don't want it!" So again, I covered his ears and he calmed down and eventually liked them. We forgot the sparklers but i think he would have liked them! His Nana got him a glow sword and that was a big hit!!!

This has nothing to do with the 4th of July but I just have to share about how grown my baby is.

The next day we went to Busch Gardens with a friend and her little boy. They were playing in the kids water area when both of them just walked over to this ride that is cars on a track. Now, Evan usually freaks out when I try to put him on a ride WITH me and would never get on one without me. But both boys were looking at us like "please?", so we were like...well, let's give it a try. We thought they both would chicken out as soon as we put them in the car. But no...they shared a car and each had their own steering wheel. They were both startled when the car jolted forward...like they weren't expecting it to move but they were just fine the whole ride. Then they rode another ride like it that is boats. We both had tears in our eyes as we watched our big boys ride them on their own!! I can NOT believe that my baby will be two in 2 weeks. (sniff, sniff)