Fourth of July in the Preserve

We've always been out of town on the fourth of July and last year was our first year in the new neighborhood and we missed all the festivities.  This year,e were right in the middle of everything. When the neighborhood email arrived in my inbox, I signed us up for jobs.  I signed up for the photo booth and I signed Mark up to be a pie judge. Perfect jobs for us, right?

So, it rained on the fourth. Lots of rain. But it stopped right around the time for me to set up . . but the humidity must have been 99.8% - I was dripping!

So this is how the inside of the town hall was decorated. We have a nice town hall!

 

One of the events is a parade - you can decorate your bikes, trikes, golf carts, little bitty cars - anything you want and they drive around the neighborhood.

Look at the decorations on this golf cart - they have fringe on top!!!!



 

I didn't think I could post any pictures of the children that I snapped that day so I pulled one cute couple and my own young un!

 

I made props like crowns and bow ties. The girl in charge of the event dropped off some shakers. I had hats from the dollar tree and the curtains came from Amazon.  I think I want to volunteer again for next year because I want to improve on my booth.  I only had a short time to get ready this year.

 

 

Here is a picture of Laura and her friend, Josh.

 

I was hoping to meet lots of neighbors and I guess I did.  I sometimes amaze myself at what an introvert I become in a social setting where I don't know others.  Mark met quite a few folks but I didn't do so well.

 

Last year, they had LOTS of entries in the baking contests.  This year, not so much. There were four pies and let me go ahead and tell you that the winning pie was Jim Beam Banana Cream.  After the judges sampled and scored each pie, the committee cut the pies into small pieces and served them to the crowd.

 

The Hoover Fire Department is great about bringing the fire truck to an event where there are kids.  Two of the firefighters were "pressed into duty" to assist with the judging.  Mark really enjoyed getting to judge with our neighbor, Sarah. (Mark is in the orange shirt - Sarah is to his right)

 

They were sampling one pie at this point and the meringue separated from the pie and stuck to their forks.  I'm sure it was tasty anyway.

 

They ended up judging not only the pies but the homemade ice cream as well.  The Bananas Foster ice cream (I think it had Brandy in it) was the hands down winner.

 

It was a fun day.  I worked the Halloween party and the Fourth of July party.  I've met a few more neighbors.

Our neighborhood has some really cool events for families! This normal extrovert has just got to overcome her closet introvert and start talking (I know that all of you who know me well are laughing at this thought!)