Delaware City Day

I've talked about Delaware City Day on this blog before. Basically it's a big town event near us where my father-in-law lives. Every year, he opens his home to family and friends to come for a BBQ and enjoy the festivities. At some point in Ryan and I's ten-years-together, I became the designated food-preparer. So, it's become just as big of an event for us as it is for him. We've begun inviting some of our own friends and extended the invite to my family. Every year different people show up - it's just fun for us. This year it happened to take place the weekend we were leaving for vacation, so it only added to the chaos of preparing to leave (but once it was there, it was a nice break from the running around).

The day always starts with a parade. In the past we have missed the parade because Ryan has to work, I'm preparing food at the last minute, we're fighting to get a kid out of the house or because we're just not interested, but this year, Jude was a great age to enjoy it, so I really tried hard to get there on time. We packed up the food the night before and set the alarm to be out the door and in Del City in plenty of time before the road closed down at 10:30.

I was thrilled that we made it in time, because Jude truly seemed to enjoy it! He waved, collected the treats people passed out and pointed out things that struck him as exciting.

Jude loved the parade (was it because of the colors? the candy? or just because he could wave to everyone who passed by... I'll never know)

The fire trucks all had their sirens on, so I showed Jude how to cover his ears if it was too loud.

Jude and his friend Ava

Posing for the camera. Just like his mother.

Afterwards we headed back to Ryan's dad's which is only a block or two from the festivities and started cooking on the grill and entertaining friends and family. It was a great day as far as weather was concerned which made it even better.

The boys played a little baseball. And Jude had batting practice

Jude would get a little antsy when it wasn't his turn to bat or pitch and so Ryan had to show him how to 'get set' to wait for the ball... he took to it well.

A couple of times during the day we made our way down to the actual 'fair' portion of the event where they have various vendors set up selling items, moon bounces and a giant slide, carts of carnival food and a bit of live entertainment on a stage. Again, Jude really seemed to enjoy himself.

Mommom got Jude a snowcone - that stained his belly purple.

He jumped on the moon bounce

... and daddy took him down the slide.

After a day of fun, we got ready for the highlight: the fireworks. They were (as always) great. Jude was getting pretty tired by that point so curled up in my lap for it. He seemed a little more hesitant with them than he was on the 4th of July, but he warmed right up after a minute or two. By the end he was loving it.