A Day of Firsts

I have lived here for almost 30 years and this year was the first time I have ever gone to the parade and tree lighting downtown.  Crazy, right?  Which of course means that the kids had never gone either, so we bundled them all up and headed downtown.  I quickly remembered why I've never wanted to go!  There are so many people and it took forever to find somewhere to park.  Thankfully we were meeting up with some friends who had gotten there earlier and saved some room for us!  And thankfully they thought ahead and brought some umbrellas!

It's coming!

Matthias trying to get Lydia excited about the parade!

Poor girl tried to tell me something about the parade coming and I blinded her with the flash!

Then it was off to the fireworks.  Of course my poor, deprived children have never seen a fireworks show like this so they were totally into it!

Although, Matthias quickly decided that the fireworks would make good special effects for his fighting and began punching and kicking the bad guys.  Thankfully there was no one directly in front of him!

The fireworks were cool, but there was so much smoke you could only see half of it!

And of course the grand finale!