Canada Day

July 1st was Canada Day and we had a blast!  We love our country and can't even express how grateful we are to have been born and raised here and be raising our own family here.  You can't put a price on true freedom.
We decided to take part in our favorite local festivities.  T's sister joined us for the fun and we sure did appreciate the extra set of hands ;)
We started the day off with the parade with cousins (and their cousins).

We went all patriotic with our Canadian red and white shirts.  I knew T wouldn't be too stoked about it and when I bought my own shirt I decided not to buy him one.  When I got to the till I was informed it was "buy one get one free" so I grabbed him one.  Being the FUN dad that he is he put his shirt on last minute and tried not to be too embarassed by our matching outfits ;) (it almost killed him)
I will admit that once we got in the large crowd of people for the day I kind of wished I had put my kids in a neon color instead, I had a bit of anxiety over losing them in a sea of red!

After the parade we headed over to check out some of the activities (there was way too much going on to catch more then a fraction of it) and we had fun! Gotta love free too.

bubbles

lots of bouncy houses

Decorating Cobb Bakery buns....mmmm

Lots of fun games

Running a race - AL was stoked after my "mud run" on the weekend

 

The kids became a bit fixated on getting their faces painted.  They stood in the blazing heat for way too long (while we rotated eating a yummy lunch in the shade) and I finally convinced them to just buy face paints and we would do it at home.  Well, they ran into their cousin with his face painted and found out he had been in a short line at a different location.  The line may have been short but the wait sure wasn't.  They waited and waited again and it was HOT.  They were so excited with themselves after though.

We had to rush home after a good 5 hrs playing (good thing because we were a bit burnt) so I could grab my parents from the airport.  The irony........when I got back an hr later the kids had washed their faces off.  I am not sure they were painted for as long as they stood in line to wait for it...lol!

I'm kind of "mean" if you ask my kids because I never let them go to the fireworks.  I am a bit of a routine/structure junkie and don't love putting kids to be at midnight and then dealing with grouchiness due to lack of sleep for the next week (we have had a few of those nights before and I always regret it).  Hopefully one day they can learn to sleep past 6-7am and then I might slide myself out of the "mean mom" category ;)

Hope you all enjoyed your day of celebrating too!!!  "God keep our land, glorious and free"