4th of July 2018

Ahh... Summer break!

That time of year when I think I'm going to be able to play catch up on the blog because I'm not running backwards and forwards between school and kid activities all day. Ha! With three kids home all day (and still plenty of kid appointments and activities to attend) I think I'm even busier than usual. But I'm making it a priority to catch up on the blog because I have a ton of fun stuff to share with you all.

First up let's take a look back at last week's 4th of July celebration...

As usual, we spent much of the holiday at the festival at Berkeley Marina. We ate corn dogs, went on pony rides and bounce houses, made animal friends in the petting zoo, watched some fun performances, and soaked up all the red, white and blue spirit of the day. Oh, and took a ton of silly photos! 

After eating lunch when we arrived at the festival the girls were keen to check out the animals so we headed straight to the pony rides. Don't ponies look hilarious when they sneeze? It kind of looks like it's singing! The girls always enjoy riding the ponies at festivals, but they're really wanting to go for longer rides somewhere else. I'll have to look into where we can go horse riding here. Hit me up if you have any suggestions.

We then checked out the farm animals in the petting zoo. Ava was pretty excited to see pigs in there. She loves pigs and is desperate for a pet one when we get a house of our own one day. Mathilde was pretty taken by the goats and Lola loved the pony and donkey.

We then hit the dance floor where, being Berkeley, a strange mix of toddlers, couples and old hippies showed off their moves to live jazz music!

There was lots more ice cream after this and a walk along the waterfront, which meant lots of photos. Mathilde, in her sheriff romper, was keen to pose with one of the funny little three wheeled police cars dotted around the place.

Oh, look! I spy a bounce house in that last photo. The bounce houses were our last stop for the day. Mathilde went into a regular bounce house while Ava and Lola did a bouncy obstacle course and a giant slide.

We then said goodbye to the festival and made our way home for hamburgers and apple pie for dinner.

Later in the evening we headed up to our roof deck to join what seemed like every resident in our building (plus lots of guests) to watch the fireworks at Berkeley Marina. Last year we had no luck watching the fireworks from our roof as it had been super foggy. This year we were lucky to have a crystal clear, if cold, night and could see not only the fireworks at the marina, but also in San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond and even on the other side of the Marin Headlands. There were also lots of smaller backyard fireworks to see. Shh... those ones are illegal! One year I'd like to watch the fireworks from the marina because they look so much more impressive from close up, but it's so much easier to just walk up the stairs to our roof deck!

 I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!