The Day We Celebrated the 4th of July

This year our 4th of July celebration started the night before with a sleepover in the backyard at the Albrecht’s.  The girls were so excited about it and bounced around like rogue pin balls all night long.  They had a blast playing in the tent and practicing sleeping.

When it was finally time for them to go to sleep, this photo shows Brooke’s reaction to the news that she would not be spending the night.  The size of the tent made it so there was just enough room for Maya, Eden, Katelyn and the dads.  Brooke was not happy about it but was so exhausted that she passed out about 2 seconds after we got home.  The next morning we enjoyed a great breakfast all together and then headed out to our local parade.

The parade is a definite kid pleaser.  The “floats” consist mostly of decorated bikes and golf carts with actual floats here and there.  But no of that matters because they throw candy to kids.

My personal favorite this year was the “World Famous Unknown Dry-land Synchronized Swimmers” – these guys were hilarious but they didn’t throw candy so the kids didn’t care for them much.

Brooke was lucky enough to have a personal candy assistant.  We ran into our friend Emma and she helped Brooke retrieve and inventory her candy.  It’s good to be Brooke.

She definitely had moments where she was offended (by who knows what) and she seemed to be itchy… but she had a lot of fun and ended up with more candy than the big kids thanks to Emma’s help. We  had a great time and I am so glad we live in such a fun place surrounded by so many wonderful friends.

After the parade it was time to play outside.  Time by the pool quickly turned into a water fight.  The girls had squirt guns but Kyle had a refillable fire extinguisher (filled with water).

Once everyone was worn out, it was time for a great dinner with Aric’s famous ribs as the main attraction.  They were amazing.

After dinner we enjoyed fire-restriction approved “fire” works and the girls had a blast.  The it was off to watch the real fireworks from the 18th green overlooking the lake.  It was a great day and we are grateful we live in such a wonderful country.

Aric was trying to help Camden photo-bomb this picture :)