7 Quick Takes: July 4th, 2012

1) We celebrated our Fourth of July by attending the oldest parade in the country in Bristol, Rhode Island.  

The 227th year in a row!  Pretty amazing, right?

2) Thank God that the Red Sox and Patriots team colors are red, white, and blue....and for cheap Old Navy vintage flag shirts.....and hand-me-down festive dresses:

 (Xander is sleeping in the stroller under that blanket, I promise!)

3) And here he is awake, celebrating his FIRST 4th of July:

4) Back when I was an auditor, I actually worked on the audit of the Town of Bristol and got to spend a month working in their town hall.  It was in November that we performed the audit (they did wonderfully) and guess what they were talking about non-stop?  The 4th of July parade!  They start planning it on July 5th for the following year.  It's huge and attracts tons of visitors (over 200,000) from all over.  They even paint the lines in the roads red, white and blue:

 5) This year we were invited by our coworker, so we were able to go to her house pre-parade to hang out because the roads to the town close at 8am but the parade doesn't start until 10:30! 

6) Her wonderful husband goes out at 5 am to set up chairs in "their spot" under the shade of some trees for all of us lucky ones who want to watch (this is only most of the group):  

Sort of Famous people were there!!

Here's the reigning Miss America:

and Tony, the dancing cop:

7) Then after the loooooooong parade (I think it ended at 1:00) we go back to her house for food and swimming and games.  

It was such a fun day and I hope the kids were good enough to get us invited back next year ;)

Enjoy your weekend AND the rest of the pictures here :)