Our 4th of July Rundown

We finished up our daily patriotic celebrations with a couple of fun things.

First, we made a fun patriotic plate for a family in our ward because he has recently served in Afghanistan. So the kids colored pictures, and Bill and I wrote a letter expressing gratitude to their whole family for all their sacrifices on our behalf. Then we took that over to their house. This is what it looked like (minus the letters):

Then for one of our last patriotic activities, we painted the girls' fingernails red, white, and blue with patriotic confetti polish on all the nails. So fun! (Hayden even wanted his nails painted, so I did paint two of them - but he quickly picked it off. Good boy!)

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Happy 4th of July!

My kids were so excited for this day to come that they could hardly stand it! Rylee woke up at 4:00 because she couldn't wait. Bill and I got up a little after 6:00 to get ready for our busy day. My parents came over shortly after 7:00 and we had a yummy breakfast of pancakes, hash browns, eggs, and bacon! YUM! Then we got the kids ready and were off to the parade.

What a beautiful day for a parade! It was breezy and a little overcast, so the heat was bearable.
It was wonderful! While we were waiting for the parade to start, we took some pictures:

Not the greatest picture, but you try to get four kids all posed and looking perfect - all at the same time when there is so much going on around them!

My mom and dad (who were lifesavers at the parade, by the way) with all four rugrats! Nice belly, Hayden. He is apparently already chewing on his shirt in anticipation.


We also met our BFFs down the street for the parade. The kids were so excited to be with their buddies at the parade. So, of course we had to take some shots of all the kids in their patriotic garb. I know I am kind of biased, but I think our kids were the cutest there!

As the parade progressed, Kate was so good! She was just chillin' with my dad. How cute is this! She didn't even flinch when the firetrucks came by with their horns blaring and sirens screaming. Nope, she just took it all in. Hayden on the other hand...

Not a big fan of the firetrucks. Poor little dude. There was a ton of cool stuff that he missed out on seeing in the parade because he had his head burrowed half the time. There was a pirate float with a cannon on it that they would fire every now and then - loved that! And he missed the jets doing their fly-by. This year the jets were even followed by a jumbo jet. I have no idea how that big thing was keeping up with the jets, but it did. It was AWESOME! That was my favorite part!

And Bill was a great sport. He knelt out in the street with the girls through half the parade helping them get the candy that was thrown out. The girls love that part! (Heck, I love that part and I am almost thirty - but we aren't going there for another few days!)

After the parade we came home and started filling up the swimming pool to let it start warming up for later. Then we made some food for the BBQ and just hung out as a family until dinner.

Again, we hung out with our BFFs for dinner, and again the kids were thrilled (and so was I!) Here is some of the spread (thanks for the fruit cabobs, corn, and watermelon stars Steph! And thanks for cooking the ummy chicken, Honey!):

And the dessert:


And the kids put on their suits to swim for a little bit (even though we tried to talk them out of swimming because it was windy - nice weather for playing outside, but maybe not so nice for swimming.)

Hayden didn't last long. As soon as he got splashed, he was headed for the house. He looked cute though!

The girls had fun though! (Even though their teeth were chattering!) Here is a funny little thing that Steph saw happen - just to illustrate that our girls have all been raised like sisters:

Lana was climbing up getting ready to go down the slide and Tess was behind her. Tess reached up and picked Lana's wedgie for her before she went down the slide, and it didn't even phase Lana. Such funny kids!

And the babies, both on their second outfit for the day, were entertaining the adults in the house! They watched each other and tried to immitate the other's movements. SO ADORABLE! And, as always, Kate is cheesing it for the camera! And then there is Sophie who just looks so sweet and innocent. Dang cute girls!

After the BBQ, we bathed the kids and got ready for fireworks. Both sets of grandparents came over for those, along with great grandma Smith. We had a lot of fun, and the kids were SO TIRED! Lana fell asleep in my mom's arms during the fireworks and Rylee went in to bed in the middle of fireworks, and the two youngest ones were both asleep before it all started. Oh well, the adults enjoyed the fireworks!

This 4th of July was fun, like always, and now we can start looking forward to next year!!! Only 363 more days! Thank you to all those who came to hang out with us! We loved your company and had a blast with you!!! Let's do it again next year!