We had the opportunity to walk in a parade, but seeing as only half of us would have been walking, and the walking would probably have involved more waiting than walking, we opted for something all of us could enjoy. We spent the morning at Living History Farms!
When we first got there, the crowd was pretty small, which was just right. They had all sorts of games and contests for kids to try. After walking up the hill and trying out some homemade stilts, we continued on to the school house for a spelling bee.
The girls both said they wanted to try the spelling bee. However, Ashlyn got stage fright when she was asked to spell her first word, and said she didn't want to be in it anymore. Emma did alright until she got a word she wasn't sure of.
She actually spelled it correctly, but didn't finish her turn by repeating the word. The school mistress stood there waiting for her, which I think Emma took as a sign that she had spelled it wrong, so she re-spelled it and then repeated the word, ending her turn. Unfortunately, when she re-spelled the word, she did so incorrectly, so she was out. And then there were tears... lots of broken-hearted tears.
So then it was on to other games! They had a penny scramble, which was basically like playing hide-and-seek with pennies in a big pile of hay. Emma was really good at that one. She found 17 regular pennies, plus a few with special markings for tootsie rolls.
After that, we found the water games. Emma and Ashlyn were one team, and Josiah and Dakota were another team. (I was the games photographer.) The girls flew back and forth, filling their white bucket, while Josiah soaked himself with cupfuls of water, and eventually decided racing wasn't as much fun as playing in the big bucket of water.
There were other races too--like the potato sack race, and the three legged race. Oh, and don't forget the watermelon seed spitting contest.
But by far, the funniest contest was the pie eating contest. The girls had no intention of trying that contest. First of all, Emma thought she'd have to eat a whole pie. And second, they complained that they didn't want to get all messy. (girls!) But those things didn't bother Josiah. He heard us mention "pie" and "eating," and he was all in! (boys!)
Just for fun, I joined Josiah, and we ate our slices of apple pie. (No hands allowed!) When that round was finished, I had taken third place, and Josiah was still working on his piece. The girls finally realized they were missing out on their chance to eat dessert before lunch and they probably wouldn't get all that messy, so they asked to join in the next round.
At the end of that round, Emma had taken third place, and Josiah was still working on his piece. But he was having a great time eating pie with his face!
We didn't stick around too much longer after that. The crowd really picked up and it was time for lunch. We headed home, and Dakota's parents met us at the house. We swam in the afternoon, and some neighbors joined us for swimming and dinner.
Later in the evening we went out for fireworks. It wasn't the best or longest show, but the kids got their fireworks fix for the night, and we managed to make it home earlier than we expected. And that about wraps up our 4th of July!
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