Happy Fourth!

The rest of our Fourth was pretty awesome if I do say so myself.  It wasn't anything crazy, special, but it was filled with everything Erik and I like to do :) After the race, Erik went out to work on the deck (he got a crazy good deal on some nice decking material from a contractor and was in the middle of installing it).  While he did that, I hung out in the basement with my three cuties.  Anna/ Superman and Wyatt/ Wolverine kept Jackson and I company.

 The wii has been in heavy rotation lately.  Wyatt won the prize of where Peter was going on his mission and bought a couple of games.  I decided that having mastered almost all of the Just Dance 4 songs, it was time for a new one so I bought Just Dance Disney (so lame btw!).  Anyway, the middle of summer is actually a good time for video games in a nice cool basement :)

Anna grabbed a little snoozer, before the evening festivities.

And I made cupcakes!  Those blueberries were literally picked by the sweat of our brows! 

Had to get some pool time in on the 4th!  A breeze picked up and it actually was a little chillier than I like at the pool, but it was still fun.

Chocolate milk break.

At around 7:00 we had the Stakers, Clingermans, and a couple guys from work (plus a girlfriend) over for a BBQ.  While people were there, I used the opportunity to have someone take our picture.  It's not everyday that we are in coordinating clothing!!

Stakers!

 Clingermans!  I guess I should have taken the guys' pictures as well! haha

Treat table.

Those kids do so well together.

Yummy!

Hudson was super into Maverick this time.  It was pretty funny!

Maverick gets treated really well by all of the Clingermans really.  He must be pretty excited whenever they come over, because he is pretty much guaranteed a few good games of fetch!

Piper entertaining us with her patriotic dancing

And Anna was enjoying Brett's throwing skills as well!  She was playing with him for a while.

Once it was dark, it was time for the fire works show to begin.  Luckily, no one blew themselves up!

Poor Anna was just not a fan of the whole fireworks ordeal.  She was pretty scared and tired-- not a good combination.

 Sparklers!

This picture makes me really sad.  She just really wanted to go to bed, but I wanted to see Wyatt and Jackson with the fireworks as well.  I hate it when I can't make all three of my kids happy at the same time!

I didn't get a picture, but at one point each guy had a firework thing that they would hold up into the sky and it would shoot out.  Someone said that it looked like they were all conjuring the dark mark like in Harry Potter, and that is exactly what they looked like!  It was hilarious, and at any minute we were expecting Voldemort himself to come down!

I finally did go up and put her jammies on and she insisted on wearing sunglasses to protect her eyes from the bright lights :)

 We really had a great 4th of July.  Erik said it was the best one we've ever had!  I agree it was wonderful; I guess the only thing was missing was some small way of reflecting on the blessings of living in this country.  I really want to pass that appreciation and knowledge to the kids, but in an organic way.  Hopefully, I will think of something for next year!