Happy Birthday America!

Since there usually is not much going on in Wellesley on July 4, we took the kids this year to Needham's Independence Day celebration on July 3. Not only did everyone have a blast, but Jocelyn had her "A Star Is Born" moment! More on that below.

We started with pony rides, which Jocelyn adored (Ian was a little gun-shy, at least at first)...


...and from there we went to have our faces painted. Ian wanted a baseball painted on his cheek, and Jocelyn (surprise, surprise) went for Hello Kitty.


Then we headed over to the field where the fireworks would take place. We hung out, listening to the band that was playing, and dancing...

...when suddenly the singer asked for a child to volunteer to sing part of a song. Jocelyn was up there just as fast as you can imagine! She had the crowd eating out of her hand when she sang the line "Why's everybody always picking on me?" from "The Charlie Brown Song." She made her Momma and Poppa very proud!

When her star turn was complete, we danced while the band played until dusk...

...and Ian got so hot from dancing that we had to strip him down to his onesie!

When it got dark, the fireworks began, and they were amazing. They went on for about a half hour, and the sky was completely lit up with vibrant colors! Jocelyn and Ian seemed to love their first experience with them (maybe because they got to stay up waaaaaay past their bedtime).

For the rest of the weekend Jocelyn would spontaneously blurt out, "why's everybody always picking on me?" What fun. We hope everyone else had a safe and happy 4th too!