Independence Day!

The best part about the 4th of July, was that after a day of sleeping most of the day away, Shermance was back to herself!  She was done with the constant nausea, fatigue, and general moodiness.  Wahoo! A day worthy of fireworks!

The boys and I particiapted in the Round Rock Frontier Day Parade.  The night prior, Parker and I heped decorate the trailerwith crepe paper (aparently its streamers now since the teenager had no idea what crepe paper is), ribbons, flags, and in the morning balloons.  The boys sat on hay bales and waved flags through the route while chanting cadences:

"Everywhere we go,

people what to know,

who we are.

So we tell them,

We are Cub Scouts,

mighty, mighty Cub Scouts,

Pack 365.

Best Every Day!

There are many more verses that include thirsty, hungry, tired, as well as the 12 points of the Scout Oath.  We also sang Boom Chick Boom and a few others to keep-up the scout spirit.  Both the cooler weather and the ride on the trailer made this parade the best ever.  After cleaning up from the parade, we got a few of the hay bales to use in our backyard for our boys' new archery hobby...Then we bought some fireworks! Logan was super excited because we bought one of the "super packs".

Shermance and the boys originally didn't want to take advantage of the VIP tickets we had for the Austin Symphony and fireworks.  The boys wanted to stay in the 'hood and shoot fireworks with their buddies and Shermnce didin't know if she'd be up for it.  But while I was out running errands she texed, "I want grapes, cheese/Brie, and crackers to take on the picnic tonight." A few seconds later, "Mousse, too.  Chocolate Mousse!"  With that I picked up the required items and packed 'em with some drinks in a picnic basket and we headed downtown with a plan to cut out early from the fireworks to get home in time to shoot off our own fireworks.

Our VIP tix, afforded us front-row parking in the crowded downtown, with indoor bathrooms (so we bypassed the port-o-potties) and just a few steps to the front row of the symphony.  HEB, a sponsor of the event, handed out fans and glow bands that could be wrapped around like bracelets or chained together as necklaces.  There was no limit to how many we could take so Shermance loaded up...unfortunately she had one too many.  While she was linking together a huge necklace one of the glow bands broke and shot the chemical in her eyes...It caused a few scary moments when we didn't know how it would affect her, but after she rinsed out her eyes and we checked the contents of the sticks both on the box and online, we found it was non-toxic and the burning should subside.  She still had effects the next day with some blurriness and discomfort but she has since healed. 

The symphony was fantastic.  Lots of tributes. Several John Williams pieces.  One piece by a high school student who now goes to UT, and one slide show set to music for the Homecoming Project.  Our front-row seats were great and the kids liked seeing all the instruments playing together.  Logan liked listening for the flutes, since that is what he'll be playing in band this fall. The last song before the fireworks was the 1812 Overture.  It was beautifully done.  After the boom, boom, boom in the song the fireworks started.  We just turned our chairs and watched the display.  The symphony played a few encores as the fireworks kept on.  We ooh'd and ahh'd for about 20 minutes, and then packed up quickly, so we could shoot fireworks at home.  Since we had close parking we beat the traffic, and were home by 10:15.  Unfortunately the neighbors had already finished their fireworks and were inside...The boys were bummed. Really bummed. But tired, too.  We offered to shoot them off over the weekend, which consoled them enough to get them  to bed.
chem in eye