Fourth of July Recap
The Fourth of July has come and gone and boy, did we have fun!
The festivities began on Tuesday.
The kids and I ran a few errands, picked up some American Flags and once back home, the kids found some festive hats and pretty much sported them the remainder of the day while they played and played and played and played…
Later that day my neighbor, Amy, invited us to join her and another one of our girlfriend’s, Sara, and her kiddos over to her house. Amy was gearing up for her annual Fourth of July party, which was to be held on the upcoming weekend. Sara and I kept Amy company while she mixed and measured, cooked and baked. The kids kept themselves busy, as well, by playing and playing and playing and playing 😉.
On Wednesday we slowly woke up and I ended up going for a run. It was stifling outside. So hot. So very, very hot. I felt like I was melting just by walking out on my front porch, so – needless to say, by the end of my run I was dripping in sweat. Dripping, you guys, dripping. It was kind of gross, but it also felt kind of good. In fact, I was so gross that I just ended up going into the lake with all of my running clothes on. Haha!
At that point in the day I still thought we were heading out to watch a Fourth of July parade, but unfortunately we ended up staying home instead. I was a little bummed that we didn’t make it to a parade this year, but I tried not to taint the day with my emotions. I did, however, still manage to grab a few pictures of the kids, but I was really missing that All-American red, white and blue family photo opp.
Miss. E’s sweet little braid. Love.
This boy and that hat…
…and that seven-year-old smile! LOVE it!
I cleaned all day in anticipation of some local friends arriving later that evening to watch fireworks right there over the water.
At one point, a mental break and physical break was due. So I brewed up some coffee, took it outside into the 90 degree heat, wrote out a MUCH NEEDED chore chart for the kids and watched as Jon, our neighbor, Tom, and all the kiddos played in the lake.
After my break I continued to clean and then Jon blew up Pretty, Pretty Peacock. I helped him carry it down to the lake and he then anchored it between our house and the neighbors’ house.
This thing had us cracking up! It was so much fun.
As evening rolled around, so did our friends, and as you can see behind me in the pic below, the boats began to anchor in, as well.
These kids played their little hearts out!
Let’s just say that Pretty, Pretty Peacock instantly became a trampoline.
So fun!
As we were preparing for the much anticipated fireworks, many of us parents sprayed our kids with bug spray. The mosquitoes have been something fierce this year and I’m sure some of us will be itching well into November. Unfortunately, some of the kids were having reactions to what we thought was the bug spray. Both Henry AND Eliza were so uncomfortable and both kept complaining about their necks hurting. I, at first, thought it just from their life jackets, but as the evening progressed, they seemed to become more and more uncomfortable. I heard a couple other kids who also seemed to be having a reaction. I’m pretty sure we all used different sprays, so I was really confused and honestly we still don’t know what caused the reaction/itching; The bug repellant? The lake? The inflatable? The heat? A combination of all those things? So strange.
Anyhoo, the silver-lining was that I took the kids individually over to the lake while the fireworks were going off and dipped them into the water – to be clear, they could touch AND I was holding their hands. This is something we would have never done considering we didn’t have life jackets nor would we ever allow them to be in the lake at night, but I have to say, it was nice to share a peaceful moment with each of them as the fireworks lit up the night sky. I really hope I never forget it. Luckily, it seemed to have worked and they both seemed to feel so much better after their quick dips in the lake.
Per usual, once the fireworks ended, so did the gathering. Everyone quickly left to get their littles off to bed. All of our babies were exhausted!
Early Thursday morning our garage door arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You guys! I’m in love. In love, I say!!!!!!
However, before I was all heart-eyes Jon came into the house and told me I needed to go outside and take a look at the new garage door. He thought we were getting the wrong kind of door, so of course I panicked and went outside while still sporting some eye boogers, bad breath and no lady support, if you know what I mean ;). Luckily I had studied the dimensions enough to know that it was indeed the correct door, but I tooootally could have seen why and how Jon thought it was the wrong one. Talk about a mini-heart-attack! Phew!!!!
We’ve waited for this door since 2007!!!
You guys, I can’t tell you how much I love this thing. It’s like a baby to me. It just makes me so, so, soooooooo incredibly happy.
The rest of Thursday consisted of me walking outside a billion times to look at our new garage door (Haha), as well as me going on a solo grocery shopping trip since Jon had taken the day off and was at home with the kids.
On Friday we took the kids to our local theater for their Popcorn Theater production of Charlotte’s Web. It was the sweetest show ever! The place was also packed. So much so that we heard they had completely sold out! We were grateful that a friend of ours had saved us seats. Even with having left our house early we were still some of the last ones to get to our seats. Wow! It was nuts, but I love that our little theater has such demand!
At the end of the performance there was a raffle to win the book, Charlotte’s Web. They called out several ticket stub numbers, some of whom collected their book, but some who never did or who had perhaps left before the raffle drawings had commenced. Henry and his buddy, Redmond, carefully reviewed their tickets as every number was called out. It came down to the last drawing and wouldn’t you know it – Henry won!!!
Since it was the last drawing, the crowd began to leave and Henry had to basically swim upstream in order to collect his prize. Totally worth it AND so exciting! We can’t wait to start reading it!
Once home we prepared the house a bit more knowing that my sister and her family were coming over for the weekend, as well as prepping for more kiddos to come back over on Saturday to play out on the lake again. Henry and Eliza decided to sell Starbursts to customers on Saturday. They got to work and as you can see from Eliza’s glasses, they were taking it very seriously. LOL!
I got in a run in our basement. Apparently it became a family affair. Ha!
We went out to Mexican for dinner and boy was that delicious. The place we went to always has a wait time once the dinner crowds arrive, so we were sure to leave well before five and were lucky enough to have beaten the big crowds. We were seated immediately. Phew!
My sister and her fam showed up and I stole snuggled my niece. 😉 Babies make everything wonderful.
On Saturday, my sister and I went for a run and we went out on the boat for a while. We took Henry and my nephew, Christian, for a tube ride, too.
They kept wanting to go faster. I can’t believe they’re finally at that age to be doing this together!
Eliza also west, as did my amazing BIL, Derrick, and his son, Lawson!
Later that morning/afternoon, we found the kids doing this… LOL!
Later in the afternoon we visited with our neighbors’ friends, my sister and I cooked up some food to take next door for later that evening, our local friends arrived, we swam, we consumed some adult beverages, we ate and we bonfired it up.
It’s crazy – I don’t have many pictures from all that time – I guess we were busy having fun. One of the last pictures I have from the week/weekend is of Eliza and her friend, Ashlyn, reading a book in Eliza’s bed together. My heart. Oh my heart.
I told them to go night-night only to find them an hour or so later playing dolls with all the lights on – it was pretty darn adorable…
…and there you have it. I didn’t do much on Sunday since we had stayed up way too late AND since we were up nice and early, but hey – I blogged, so that’s saying something. LOL!
Thanks for stopping by!
Marie 🙂
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