4th of July Celebrations

The 4th of July weekend started with yet more deck building!  Bonnie and Hambone stopped by on a bike ride, and ended up spending most of the day at our house.  Greg showed up, too - and there was a regular party on our "almost" deck going on.

On Saturday night, David, Renee, Chuckie, Grandma and Papa got here after we were all in bed.  We couldn't wait to wake up and see them on Sunday - even though they were a little tired :-)  The best part was - Grandma and Papa slept on the bottom bunk bed, so we rotated beds!  Kylie and Neela took turns "sleeping over" in Brooke's room.  Brooke LOVED it!

On Sunday, we spent a lot of time hanging out while Daddy and Chuckie worked on the deck.  Then, David, Grandma, Renee, Mommy, Kylie and Neela went shopping.  Aunt Renee has lost a lot of weight - so we helped "Her Majesty" find some new clothes.  Mommy and Uncle David played "Dress Up Dolly" at the store, while we crawled in and out of the dressing room to "present Her Majesty".

Sunday night, we got our first taste of snaps - and had a bonfire.  We even made s'mores!

The 4th of July started with PANCAKES!  Of course, Mommy couldn't let us have "plain" pancakes - we had patriotic pancakes!  (The white is whipped cream!)

Then, we headed to the parade in Afton with the Flahive clan. Aunt Renee wanted to make sure Uncle David got a "true" test of the midwest holiday -- and we're pretty sure he got that, and more! We all got dressed in our red, white and blue (Aunt Renee bought all the grown-up's shirts - so no one had an excuse to be unpatriotic!), and headed to Afton. We had a great spot in the middle of the parade - it goes down and back on the same street! The best thing the parade particpants pass out isn't candy - it's freezy pops and flags!

After the parade, we came home for nap time.  We were invited to 3 or 4 other gatherings, but decided it would be best to stay at our house with the large family in town :-)  So, we had the Moss's, the Flahive's, and Alyssa came over for a good old fashioned BBQ.  After supper, everyone cleaned up and packed up -- and a few came back to watch the fireworks in our cul-de-sac.  Uncle David had a BLAST lighting off fireworks for all of us -- and we were as excited by the fountains as any firework that went into the sky!