Happy 4th of July!

Or should I say, Happy Clamerica! Yesterday the town of Cedar Key went a little wacky. Well, at least some of us did. I mean, it was HOT and STICKY and ICKY and wah wah wah, I know. Despite the intense heat, the 5th annual Clamerica Festival went smoothly. Yes, I said Clamerica. Yes, everything revolves around clams here. Or at least it's supposed to. Anyway, as Sarah is now an esteemed member of the 5th grade Safety Patrol, us parents are on a fundraising crusade. In fact, you thought everything was getting expensive? We have to raise 15k for the Washington DC trip this year. Ouch! This being the first of three festivals the city of Cedar Key will host, we decided to start off with boiled and grilled shrimp, cupcakes, and bottled water. Overall, I think we made about $1200 dollars, so it was definitely worth it. Four main parents, including myself, are still exhausted but who's complaining? (Well, besides me, that is.)

Katy got to work in the face painting booth! She also learned how to make some balloon animals, which was very cool. Her friend from Gainesville is in town so she has been having a blast!

Our spectacular (ok, that may be stretching it) booth. How about our functional booth?

For the first time in 5 years, Shawn Stephenson did not drive his boat in the parade. He had too much work to do and had done way too much (for me) volunteering during the week. So who did they call? Our good friend and neighbor, Mike Smith! Poor guy, he was hornswoggled. Mike drove the truck, pulling the clam boat behind with a ton of kids on it (including ours.) We just can't stop being in the parade. Momma, Emily's mom Lisa, and Savannah's mom Karen-with-a-K were luckily "way too busy" setting up the booth. Aw, shucks. Maybe next year... Or not!

Savannah and Sarah check out the cupcake display...and promptly sampled them, as well.

It was a good festival, I thought. I don't think they had quite the turnout they were hoping for, but I thought they were overly optimistic to begin with anyway. We sold everything we brought to the park, with the exception of the bottled water (which there was way too much of), but that can be used next fall at the Seafood Festival. The kids had a great time, enjoying a little freedom in the park. There were free water slides, bounce house, sand sculpting contests, clam bag races, clam cookoffs, etc. Plenty to do, and lots of ways for them to keep cool. If only we had thought to bring a giant mist blower to our booth, ala the Florida Gators Football sideline, we might have been cool, too. I'll have to work on that for the NEXT Clamerica! Maybe you should save the date, July 4, 2010, and see how I did. See you there!