Happy 4th of July!

We hope your family had a wonderful Fourth of July! The Hageman crew had a great day. I enjoyed reading about our holiday from five years ago (see post here) and seeing what was similar/different. Our holiday this year was marked with a road race, time with family, friends, community events, shooting off fireworks, and watching the city fireworks show. 

Will and I kicked off the day with a 5K road race in Junction City. My awesome friend Christine watched our kids at this super early hour so that we could run together - thanks, Christine!! Will had a huge PR and ran the race in 24:25! 

Well, I did not have a PR. :) I did run the whole race without stopping, though, and faster than on the same course last year.

We celebrated the race with eating a ginormous breakfast at Early Edition. This is a breakfast/lunch restaurant close to our house. The fruit side is especially fantastic.

My parents also came from Wichita for a short visit in the early afternoon! So much fun to spend time with them, and my kids talked their ear off for a while instead of mine. ;) I didn't get any pictures of the event, but we went to our favorite restaurant, Taco Bell. I only ordered one item but ended up eating more than everyone else because everyone felt sorry for me and kept giving me food.

The same thing happened at Dairy Queen - I was so full I neglected to order a dessert, but somehow ended up with just about Daniel's entire Oreo blizzard. 

After my parents departed, more fun in the afternoon with friends! We christened our new patio by shooting off fireworks in the backyard. Annika convinced the other girls that the colored smoke bombs were stinky. :)

Daniel was not to be convinced. He said several times yesterday that 4th of July is his FAVORITE!!! holiday.

The Thorntons came over later to join in the fun. I didn't get a good shot of this, but Greg LOVED!!! the fireworks. Every time a loud firecracker exploded, Greg would clap his hands and explain "BOOM!!!" quite loudly. It was adorable.

Greg also had certain whims of who should sit on our piano bench with him. I thought he was commenting on my joyous "music," but he turned out to just be saying "sit." :)

We went to dinner with the Thorntons at Smashburger. (It is upon writing this blog that I realized that we ate out for every.single.meal yesterday. I think we must have still been in "vacation mode"...)

We had another treat in the evening - the Manhattan Municipal Band 4th of July concert! This is a community band that puts on free concerts almost every week over the summer, and tonight all of the selections were patriotic numbers. Our friend Jeff is in the band so that was really fun to see.

Sitting on the grass. Annika's music teacher performed a vocal selection and had distributed flags for the kids to wave during it.

View of the stage.

Hanging out with Christine and her girls! Christine is much more prepared than us and arrived with a blanket, coloring books, markers, etc., and very nicely let us borrow her provisions. :)

We took the kids over to the nearby City Park about halfway through until near the end. You could still hear the music being played at the stage, although not nearly as loudly.

Flag Faces!

When we arrived home from the band concert, it was time to light off the "night" fireworks. Here the kids are watching some flaming tanks and turtles. Because nothing says, "Happy Birthday, America!" like a bunch of flaming turtles (turtles?) that were made in China.

Daniel was definitely the most interested child with the fireworks! He was apprehensive about the sparkler (as was I) but loved it as he got used to it.

Our final tradition of the night was going to watch the town fireworks show. These are set off at Cico Park, right by our house, so the tradition is to go down to the gas station on the corner, get yummy snacks, and watch the show in the parking lot in lawn chairs. The other tradition is for me to feel exhausted and ready for bed and for Will to take the kids by himself. Not wanting to mess with tradition :), I went to bed very early and Will took the kids.

The show! Will got some great shots using his older iPhone.

Daniel declared after the show that, "This was the BEST fireworks show EVER!!!" Coupled with the fact that 4th of July is his favorite holiday, I think we can mark the day as a success. :)