Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July to everyone. I love the 4th of July and I have missed going to a real 4th of July celebration for far too long. This year I remedied that. I found this little town named Fenton, MI on the Internet. They have a Freedom Festival for the 4th that lasts for 3 days. We decided to go and check it out. Taryn was less than pleased in this picture if you can tell. She was a bit tired that we got her up so early.
I rose my family up at the crack of dawn to get ready for a wonderful 4th of July. Fenton, started out their festival with a pancake breakfast at their community center. So we loaded up with the Seficks and Janelle, seen below, and headed to Fenton for some fun.
Janelle Bennett, a friend of ours from St. Maarten came with us for the festivities. We were sure glad to have her with us. The 4th is a day to spend with family and friends.
After the breakfast we headed to our chairs, that we had set out before going to the breakfast, which was a smart move on our part, and prepared to watch the Fenton parade. The Lions Club of Fenton brought around mini American flags for everyone to wave during the parade. Tyson thought that was cool.
The parade started off with the presentation of our Nation's flag and then the precession of the police march.
This was one of the few floats in the parade. The parade wasn't small by any means, but it was different. It lasted 1 1/2 hours and had the parade look, but a lot of the presentations in the parade were propaganda for churches, voting rights and community vendors. It was interesting. But they threw candy and so the kids were happy. Our pockets were full with the spoils of the parade and it looks like I have enough candy for Halloween in a few months. HA HA
I love Clydesdale horses. I think these big beautiful horses are a 4th of July icon pulling a wagon dressed in our nation's colors. It kind of make ya want to stand a little taller and thank Heavenly Father that you are an American.Tyson and his buddy Decker. They enjoyed the parade and jumped around when the candy came, danced with the passing music and waved a whole bunch. The only part of the parade that was a BIT noisy was the last 5 minutes. About ten fire trucks passed from the surrounding areas and they all BLARED their horns and sirens. Taryn didn't like that at all and was practically climbing up me to get away from them. I had to hold my hands over her ears for her to endure it all.As the parade ended, she passed out. Getting up at the crack finally got to her. We then loaded up the chairs and headed to walk around all the vendors and go on some rides for Tyson.There was a vendor who was painting faces. She had a bunch of cool designs to choose from and Tyson wanted the scorpion. He thought it was so cool that he had this creature on his face.They had a few of those blow up areas for the kids to jump in and it was all FREE. A major score in my book.And of course there was the SLIDE! I think Tyson went down it ten times.Some of the vendors had little crafts you could make and one of them made the sand designs in the containers. Tyson was awe struck and wanted one. Why not! So we made this little creations and he was elated that he got to make something so cool. Some of the vendors had really neat hand crafted purses, hats, scarves and lots of other stuff. Then some of them looked like they had gone through their attic and found all the stuff that they no longer use and decided to put up a stand at the 4th of July parade and sell it. Funny stuff.Miss Fenton was wandering around the festival grounds and she started talking to Tyson. He was smitten and he wanted a picture with her. ARG, it has already begun. I need a big bat to beat all the girls away. (Wishful thinking) We had lunch from the Lions Club BBQ with chicken, beans, potatoes, and slaw. It was good eats and I was stuffed after the consumption.

Taryn enjoyed playing with her stroller restrains and was actually an angel for 90% of the day. She looked like the little Americana princess in her little dress. One of the vendors was selling these little Patriotic halos with streamers down the back, and if she had been a bit older I would have bought one for her. But as old as she is now, it would just be a chew toy.
They had pony rides and Tyson begged to ride the pony. I couldn't resist. He thought he was Lane Frost on his pony and would raise his arm up in the air as he rode. What a kid. I was just waiting for him to fall off.
We stayed in Fenton till about 2:30 and then called it a day. Here we are on the ride home. Tyson's scorpion stayed on, surprisingly.Taryn looks ready to pass out, but she didn't. In fact she didn't take another nap until bed time. What a GIRL! She doesn't want to miss anything. After a little relaxing at the house we headed over to the Buccellatos for some more BBQ and wonderful eats and good conversation. We tried to catch some fireworks, but we only caught the tail end of some. The little suburbs around here kind of do their own thing, so they aren't really big. Even so, we had such a great 4th of July. I felt like we were back in Circleville at the festival there. Happy Independence Day and a prayer for all the men and women serving in our Armed Forces around the globe. You are truly our heroes.