Hot Summer Nights

For those of you who read this blog and aren't local, we live near 2 Indian Casinos. For the last several years the Mohegan Sun Casino has sponsored "Hot Summer Nights" in July & August on the roof of one of the parking garages. It starts at 4pm with a farmers market, battle of the bands and a cruise night style car show. The casino sponsors a food tent where every item is "1 ticket" and the tickets cost a buck. They give out free popcorn and bottled water too! In other words this is a really cheap night out for our family. We spend 10 bucks at the food tent and then another 6 over at the farmers market to get FRESH strawberry shortcakes. The night is capped off with a beautiful fireworks display around 9pm. Last night Daddy was home from work about 7 - one of the earliest nights in a LONG time. We loaded up the girls, the strollers, our "chairs in a bag" and headed out. We found a parking spot without much trouble and got down one elevator bank and up the next without a long wait. That might not sound like much to be excited about - but with the crowds this attracts and all the paraphernalia we carry it set the tone for the evening. Most of you know that I started back to work on Monday and I was dreading it, not the work or the people I really missed that, I was just really anxious about trying to work out a routine. I have been pleasantly surprised, everything has fallen into place. The night out felt like a little victory party for us, one everyone deserved. It has been really hot and humid here the last 2 weeks and there was a slight breeze on the top of the roof - it was nice to have a little time to sit, cool off and just be together and chat. Brooke was loving the music and was dancing her heart out in the middle of the little circle we created with our chairs and strollers. When the music stopped she was happy to climb into her Daddy's lap and enjoy her water bottle.



Hanging out waiting for the fireworks - not a great picture of me tired, hot and sweaty but it was really relaxing to just sit!



Brooke has recently become very sensitive to loud noises - we wondered how the fireworks would go. She told us she would just cover her ears and you guessed it she did!



This is how Kristen enjoyed her first fireworks display