Friday, July 6, 2018

4th of July Celebration 2018

So what wonderful things did you do for the 4th of July this year?

We knew we would be at church on Wednesday evening and would be home too late to go to any organized fireworks shows, so we bought our family tickets to see the Fort Worth Symphony in the Garden patriotic concert and fireworks show on Tuesday night instead.  It was super hot, but we made sure to bring plenty of cold drinks and a big cooler of water.  We arrived early, and I packed up our picnic dinner to eat before the show began. 

Image may contain: 3 people, people on stage and indoor

The concert was really nice!  I’ve seen the same kind of show done by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra in their oceanfront outdoor concerts on the Neptune Stage, but they always had the very loud, bombastic music like the 1812 Overture.  This was different!  They chose very soft patriotic songs to play, and they had singers, too.  It was really lovely!  Hubby said he was really distracted by all the little kids running around and couldn’t really relax…we’ve gone to the other Concerts in the Garden when it was just us and mostly adults.  But as a stay-at-home mom, I’m used to tuning out extraneous noise, and I really enjoyed it.

Towards the end, my kids were getting antsy for the fireworks to begin.  A 2-hour symphony concert was a bit much for their ADHD minds to handle.  But suddenly, a brisk wind swept through the trees.  It was a welcomed respite from the heat, but at the same time, we knew that was not going to bode well for a fireworks show.  Then when it was time for the final 3 songs with accompanying fireworks to begin, they got up and announced that the fire marshal had declared it unsafe for fireworks in the high winds, so there would be no fireworks after all!  Droves of parents with young children got up and started making their way to the parking lots immediately.  Holden started softly crying.  Disaster for these kids who waited so long just to see the fireworks!  It was a damper on the night, for sure.

Haylee and I started heading for the bathroom for one last pit-stop before we began packing up to go.  On our way over there, they suddenly started the fireworks halfway through the first of 3 finale songs.  Yay!  Everyone froze in their tracks…the fire marshal saved the day!  Holden came running over to us since we were in a spot with a perfect view of the fireworks.  Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the grand finale, and then we headed home with happy kids.  Shew!  Crisis averted, especially since our tickets cost $75 and parking was $20 just so the kids could see fireworks this year!  We missed them last year because we had only been here for exactly 2 weeks and didn’t know where to go.

On the actual 4th of July, the city of Fort Worth issued a burn ban because of the extremely dry conditions, and neighboring Johnson County canceled all fireworks for the same reason.  Of course, you always have people who do it anyway, even when it’s illegal, and there were a number of serious brush fires as a result.  Not too far from us, there was a 3-alarm grass fire that took several hours for them to extinguish.  People have to take these things seriously.  It’s DRY here in TX!  It’s no joke.

Thankfully, there is a slight chance of rain for the next couple of days.  Most often, though, the storms pass by and never leave a drop here.  Terrible storm clouds moved in late last night, and there was plenty of lightning, but not a single drop of rain.  That’s how it goes here…you either get a sudden, torrential downpour that overflows your pool (and it ends just as abruptly as it starts), or you go months without a drop of rain.  You can never tell!  Developing weather comes out of nowhere from seemingly any direction here.  It’s so unpredictable.  I’ve never experienced that before.

Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful Independence Day with your families!  Everyone here was home on the 4th, but Holden and I had a regular homeschool day, so we didn’t go anywhere.  Hayden and Haylee tried to go out that night for a late-night bowling special, but the facility decided to close early just as they arrived because no one had shown up for the event.  Oh, well! 

I hope you all have a great week, and be prepared for the greatest “holiday” ever next week…Customer Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A and Free Slurpee Day!  I’ll post more details about that this weekend. 

Enjoy!

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