More fireworks!!
Sat. night we went to the Antietam Battlefield fireworks on a chartered bus, courtesy of the local paper (they charter a bus & take their advertisers (of which, Byrd Auto was one) to & from the fireworks. I was abit nervous about keeping the kids enteratined while we waited for the fireworks & such, but they did pretty well. The Maryland Symphony Orchestra puts on a concert before the fireworks as well, which I'd never been too (too lazy to spend all day there "staking out my spot" or walk 100 miles (more or less) from the parking spots that are left by late afternoon to get all the way up to where the concert is. We'd always just parked where we could park & then found a place on the grass not too horribly far from where we'd parked to watch the fireworks). So, the bus let us off right behind the concert stage & they had a roped off area right in front of the stage (there were a few chairs set up for the local "VIPs" (our congressman & senator & I'm not sure who else) and then we had a roped off area of grass to spread our blankets on right behind those chairs) for us. We had brought a picnic lunch, so we ate & Rodney took Ashlyn and they walked around for awhile, while I read stories to Lexie. And then the concert started. Some organization (didn't pay attention to who LOL) was giving out small flags to all the kids, so the girls were entertained for alot of the concert by waving their flags & jumping around LOL. And during intermission the girls ended up playing tag or something similar with a bunch of other kids off to one side (dh took them w/ him to throw some trash away & they found the kids to play with so stayed over there throughout intermission). So that got some energy out & broke things up abit. They were restless by the end of the concert (we ended up playing a game & such) but overall did great. And were, once again, enthralled by the fireworks.
The bus ride back was abit long since there's no way to avoid the traffic, but at least it was someone other than us driving LOL. If we do it again I'll make sure to have some special snacks or something to keep the girls entertained on that part, I'd left all the snacks in the ice chest that was down in the cargo area, so didn't have much with me. But overall it was great!
And to make it more special, 15 years ago dh & I went to the Antietam fireworks on our first official date!!! Man, we're getting old! DH claimed that meant he'd known me "almost half" his life but I pointed out that he's older then that LOL. However, since I'm 31, I really HAVE known dh pretty close to half my life!!!!
Ashlyn told me yesterday that she's sad because she won't be able to see fireworks again until next summer . . .
Oh, at the beginning of the concert they shot off some cannons (& then again during the 1812 overture) which started a convesation with the kids on "what's a soldier" and "why do they have to protect our country" I put them off & told them we could talk about it at home, since it was during the concert & we were so close to the stage it was hard to hear each other talk, but I'm sure they'll remember and ask about it at some point LOL.
Now we're working on getting caught up on sleep & such after a week with two super late nights & so much activity.
Oh, and on Friday, we took the girls down to ride on the C&O Canal barge ride at Great Falls. Our family had done that a few times when I was a kid, but then I'd kind of forgotten about it until a friend mentioned how much her kids had enjoyed it (AND that they don't charge for kids till age 5, so I should for sure do it this summer LOL). So we did that Friday (timing was good too, because we had just gone to Paw Paw and walked through the canal tunnel, so we could tie it all together for them LOL). The water level was too low to go through the locks, so we'll "have" to go again sometime so they can experience that, but they still seemed to have fun. I was rather amazed at how little most of the other people on the barge with us seemed to know about basic history of the C&O Canal, and just canals in general. I guess growing up so close to the canal (it's not very far from my parent's house & a nice shaded, flat, smooth place to go for walks or ride bikes & such) I learned about it through osmosis or something LOL. Of course some of it is people just plain not listening, I lost track of how many times people asked about "the horses" AFTER the tour guide had done the whole little "lesson" on the difference between a horse & a mule & why they used mules to pull the barges.