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Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Gotta Start Somewhere- A Fabulous 4th

I am so overwhelmed with the sheer quantity of photos I have taken during the past few weeks as we've gone to Maui, Virginia, and North Carolina... so I'm not quite sure where to start... 

Right now I'm watching the A Capitol 4th- the PBS 4th of July celebration... so I figured I'd stick with the theme and share the pics from our awesome 4th of July today.


Kevin and the kids started off the day with waffles while I headed off on gorgeous 4 mile morning run. My perception of what is a long run has changed a bit lately. I'm happy if I can go 4 miles... 5 if I am lucky.

Then Kevin & Andrew grabbed their bikes (and I grabbed the jogger) and we ran/biked to the neighborhood pool for an hour or two of playing and splashing. Andrew has no fear of doing tricks off the side of the pool... and keeps me on edge constantly. Here's his favorite trick from today.



After a naptime of relaxing, I spent the afternoon strengthening the economy by shopping at Target :) Freedom for me is going to Target by myself... so what could be a better way to spend the 4th of July, right?

In the early evening we had our friends over for a simple BBQ. We came up with the idea yesterday when we were chatting at the park and it came together perfectly- simple, fun, and delicious. 5 kids, 4 adults, and LOTS of food!

Chrissie made all of her contributions festive which made them even more yummy!


Kevin made his homemade hamburgers (mini-sized) and special BBQ sauce. I did the corn and asparagus and bought lots of yummy chips (that need a new home right now before I devour them all!).


The kiddos kept us entertained! I loved watching Catie interact with little Jasmine... she came unglued when I tried to carry the baby around for a little bit... I have a feeling there will be a lot of crying in our house come November when Catie isn't the only baby in my arms anymore. Let's hope there is a lot of growing up between now and then or I will need some serious earplugs!




Chrissie also made some sweet cupcakes. The kids inhaled them...


Catie was like a little vacuum all evening... she kept stealing food from other people's plates and we even found her with a whole cob of corn that she'd swiped from the trash. Yum!




After dinner we broke out our newest backyard addition. Our other baby pool finally bit the dust... so we upgraded. The kids had a blast with the slide and sprinkler trees.






We ended the night with some poppers in the cul-de-sac.





We even managed to swipe some pics of the rest of the neighbor kids that came out to join us once they heard the popping. This series of photos makes me laugh because the kids were all over the place- especially Catie and Kendall.




Caters went to bed around 8pm and then Andrew and Kevin headed off to try and catch the fireworks a few towns over. Our town decided to nix showing fireworks this year- LAME-O! We tried to convince Andrew earlier in the day that it would be cool to watch the fireworks on TV, but he didn't buy it and wanted to go see real ones. He has visions in his head of the cool ones from last year's adventures in Seattle... so we couldn't say no.

Meanwhile, I relaxed on the couch all evening, ate more treats, watched the fireworks on TV, and hung out outside with my neighbors while they put on their fireworks show.


Originally I was bummed that we weren't all going to get bundled up, drive 30 minutes to watch the fireworks, walk forever to find a spot to watch them, and then get home way too late and have a super grumpy Caitlin all day tomorrow... and then I thought, why? She's already been crying for the past 2 days almost constantly... why would I make myself suffer like that?

I think I am really enjoying the way things worked out. Hopefully Kevin feels the same way when I see him and Andrew in a few hours. I'm sitting in a warm house, drinking my DC, working on loads of projects that I would've been up all night doing, eating treats, and watching some pretty amazing musical numbers on TV. I've gotta say, when they do the tributes to the Olympians and Veterans I'm having a hard time keeping back the tears- pregnancy will do that to you. "Stand By Me" sung to a bunch of Veterans sitting in wheelchairs might not have been the best choice though. 

Great day, great night... Great country. Happy 4th everyone!

Update: And let's just say I spoke too soon. Kevin got home a few minutes after I finished this post. I think he didn't have as much fun as I did. Here's why...

1) He went to the wrong fireworks show... not the one Jenny suggested, but a smaller one in the same area. Not as good. At least we now know for next year. :) 

2) His car got hit. Yes- the new nice one. When he went to find out why the guy hit him... he saw people running away from the car and driver's excuse for hitting him was that he had gotten punched in the face while he was hanging out in traffic. Sweet. Now Kevin is spending the evening on the phone with the insurance company. 

At least Andrew had a blast. The underwhelming 15 minute fireworks sensation led to Andrew declaring that the fireworks this year were much better than the ones in Seattle last year.

I think Kevin would beg to disagree... but in this case, we're just happy the little man was happy.

Hope your 4th was as fun and maybe less eventful :)

1 comment:

Jenny said...

Oh no!! I'm sorry the fireworks were a bust. I wonder which ones they were? And you guys have had the worst luck with car accidents this year!! So frustrating.

Your Stand by Me comment had me laughing pretty hard. Someone should have thought that through a little better.