Happy 4th of July!

With the 24th of July just around the corner you may be thinking I mean the 24th of July, but nope - I really mean the 4th of July. We had such a fun day and I've been in a blogging rut so I haven't written about it until now. ANYWAY - here is the gist of our day. :)

We woke up early to participate in our neighborhood 's 7th annual 4th of July parade. We dressed in our red white and blue's and put streamers on our bikes, scooters and stroller. We walked around the neighborhood by the park and met at the church afterward for a yummy pancake breakfast. The boys had such a good time, we were really happy we went and didn't sleep in (which ALSO sounded like lots of fun).

Sam on his scooter:

Josh on his bike:

Me and the littles:

We went home and rested for a minute and happened to catch the Nathan's hot dog eating contest on tv while flipping channels. Sam was with us and insisted on watching it even though he was just as disgusted with it as Mark and I were. Bleck! We were however, hoping (who knows why) that the mustard belt would stay on American soil. Hooray for Joey Chestnut for winning the match in the Nathan's hot dog eating contests' version of "overtime"! :)

Then we filled up the little swimming pool in the backyard and Mark and I surprised the boys by filling up some water balloons and starting and impromptu water fight. They are GOOD little water fighters and even though we totally drenched them and kept control of the water hose for most of the time they still managed to get us completely soaked with their super soakers and balloons. The funniest thing was when Gabe woke up and decided he needed to be in charge of the water hose. He took absolutely no prisoners and just turned it loose on all of us!

We decided this year to go and watch fireworks at a park, which is something we don't usually do. We've had lots of fun in the past by just putting on our own little firework show on our driveway but this time we thought the boys would enjoy seeing them light up the sky. We loaded up our blankets and snacks and stopped on our way to get a little Ceasars pizza and a big drink (Mark's idea and SUCH a good one!) and headed to the park. The only problem is, that there was a rodeo going on also and we didn't realize it would go SOOOO late and since they didn't start the firework show until after the rodeo we seemed to wait FOREVER after it turned dark for them to start. We were happy though that we got to hear our little neighbor across the street do the Mutton Bust at the rodeo. The boys loved hearing his name on the speakers when it was his turn to ride!

It was SUCH a fun family day, we all had a blast and slept good and hard that night. We're so thankful to live in this wonderful and free country and so thankful for all the selfless people that make our freedom possible. Happy Birthday America!!