Fourth of July Celebrations

July 4th this year was a shining example of the joy of community living, as our huge Ananda spiritual family gathered at the Mountain View residential community for a delightful day of celebration.

Fueled by veggie barbecues and homemade pies, kids of all ages and sizes joined in a wide array of activities and games, including:

• Water balloon toss. (And catch. And occasionally not-catch.)
• Scavenger hunt.
• Timed obstacle course. (While maintaining an intact water balloon, no less. Some clever kids managed this by storing it carefully in their mouths. We’ll have to use bigger water balloons next time.)
• Ping pong tournament.
• Pool games, including Cannonball Contest. (Raj: “How is it judged?” Craig: “Well, could be different categories: best splash; style points; most pain....”)
• Balloon hats and magic tricks. 
• The “Escape Your Grown-up” game. (Which may have had a better name, but certainly had some good photos.)
• And goodness knows how many more.  

The music (of course there was music) included a touching barbershop rendition of God Bless America and moved on to a 50-kazoo, mass-singalong version of Stars and Stripes Forever. Rita also led a simple dance for everyone to participate in. 

And so, in one way or a hundred, everybody had a marvelously fun time. The photo album just glows with the delight of it all. 

[This post brought to you courtesy of  the Committee for the Preservation of Ananda Family News, as your regular author was unable to attend. Thank you, everybody!]