It's so fun to have two parties to go to on 4th of July! This is
Ashley's annual party but since she just got home from 3 weeks in
Africa and wasn't sure what condition her apartment would be in, it
was held at Sheena's house. What more could you ask for than some
fireworks . . .
. . . good food and fun people . . .
. . . in a beautiful setting.
Check out MRM's flower garden. It's beautiful . . . lots of variety
in shape, color, texture, et. al. It's attractive to hummingbirds, butterflies, and humans.
I actually soaked up more shade than sunshine. RBF did even more shade than I did. MRM and Rodney probably tied for most sun in a single afternoon, but MRM shifted from in the pool to by the pool to working in the garden. Rodney was mostly in the pool. Check out the iced tea in the drink holder on the side of the float . . . what a life.
Here's MRM adjusting the peas in the veggie garden. We were able to harvest 5 pods. . . the first peas of the season. YUM!
It's a dog's life. Elf almost seemed to enjoy being on the float with his mom. I think it was more being with mom than it was being on the float that he was enjoying.
Rodney was dogsitting for his brother and sister-in-law. That's Zoey who eventually settled in and had quiet times with the other dogs. She REALLY liked Elf. I think she either thought Elf was her puppy or a new toy.
All good things must come to an end, and so does the Farmington 4th of July parade. At least they go out with a bang! Not only was the fire truck the last entrant, but all the surrounding communities sent fire trucks, so we ended up with a bunch of 'em!
Here's one from Strong, ME:
Wilton, ME:
Temple, ME:
New Sharon, ME (home of the Little League Yankees #1)
and Farmington's Engine #1
and Tower #3
This was my favorite entrant in the whole parade. I've been to many "community" parades and seen the local celebrities participate in the parade. I've seen the creative things community members can do when they get together for an event like a parade. But I've never seen anyone walking their cow in a parade, much less, their cow dressed up like a pirate! Not all members of the Franklin County Dairy Club stayed with the pirate theme, but check out the eye patches, the pirate hats, and my favorite: the swashbuckling pirate sash . . . usually with cow and human wearing matching sashes. Oh, and lest we be exclusive, this dairy club also has goats in addition to cows. And one of the goats is dressed in overalls!
The New Sharon Yankees is a Little League team coached by my friend Beth (the one waving at me). Her son is on the team (he's the one with the water gun pointed right at me).
These bicyclists are a brother and sister team that go to my church! I actually substituted in one of their Sunday School classes one Sunday.
This float was from a medical group here in town and won first place (from what I read in the paper). It's definitely got the pirate theme going.
More pirate-wanna-be's. I'm not sure if this was another Vacation Bible School group or not.
Who knew a dune buggy could double as a pirate ship?
We have the local DAR chapter celebrating their 100th anniversary, a Girl Scout troop, a vacation Bible school group, a drag race car, a pair of bagpipers (grandfather and grandson), and a tractor. How's that for variety?
Hmmmm, they're not pirates and they didn't seem to be affiliated with any float, but here they are, two animals in the parade.
And this is the Animal Shelter's float with that pirate theme. If you look real closely at the back of the float, you can see a man dressed as a pirate seated next to a bulldog dressed as a pirate. The bulldog sooo looked the part!
I'm not sure who these people were or why they were driving their truck in the parade, but their little dog was enjoying the ride in the passenger's seat!
Perhaps it's politically incorrect now to call this group Old Crow Indian Band, but it's been around so long now and has such an interesting heritage, that I hope they don't change it. They're actually quite good and during the summers they play on Monday nights at "Meeting House Park" which is the park with the gazebo near my new apartment. I've actually been sitting on my verandah two Mondays in a row and heard them from there. This Monday, I hope to actually remember ahead of time and go to the concert up close!
The police car leads the way! The parade has started! For reasons that no one could explain to me, the theme for this year's parade was pirates. Do pirates have anything to do with 4th of July? I don't think so, but in this parade, there were plenty of pirates.
The parade is sponsored by the local Rotary Club.
Happy Independence Day!! Happy 4th of July!
This is in front of Pierce House, a retirement home on Main Street. They have a tent set up with chairs in it (it went up yesterday) that I thought was for the clients to have a good view of the parade. But in fact, it's for the annual strawberry shortcake sale by the local church. Proceeds this year are going towards the stained glass refurbishment project. I bet that is made with fresh local strawberries! (I intended to come back and have some but didn't make it.)
This couple brought their pets to watch the parade. That's a dog and a guinea pig! Look closely at the cage and you'll see the pet rodent in there.
I walked behind many strollers on my journey to the viewing location but this was my first triplet stroller. There are enough seats and sunshades in that thing for 3 babies to be seated comfortably!
