Independence Day Weekend

This Independence Day weekend was busy and full of friends, family, and food! It started out a blank slate with nothing planned, and ended up with two cookouts, fireworks, and lots of company!

Friday started like any other day: cloudy morning, lots of coffee, good breakfast company, and a few things on the to-do list...

Friday morning waffles with peanut butter, Audrey's favorite

Audrey gets caught digging the peanut butter out of the waffles

After breakfast, dressing, and a little housework, we played dress-up... Audrey's favorite part? Beads! Isn't she good at coordinating with her outfit? I thought so!

Tossing beads

Accessories make the outfit

When Daddy got home, we ate dinner, started thinking about the weekend, and played until bed time. We ended up figuring out that our friends, the Giddens Family, were having a cookout Saturday afternoon, and so we headed their way...

Audrey, Emmelia, and Ellie play with a water station in the backyard

Elias, Noah, and Audrey on the back porch

Pre-dinner baseball

Audrey and Noah

Smiley Elias

The kiddos

The babies

No one really had a problem with sharing... it was amazing!

Noah watching Audrey eat bread

We managed to escape yet another rain storm while visiting at the Giddens' house, and when we got home, we found a soggy Leeloo and big puddles in the driveway. Audrey splashed her way inside, and we finished our evening at home.

When the 4th rolled around, we bustled around all morning, getting ready for a group of family and friends that we invited over for snacks and fireworks. Kyle mowed and edged, Audrey and I cleaned and cooked, and by about 5pm, Grammy, Gramps, Mimmy, and Pappy were playing with Little A, and more were on the way...

Audrey in her firecracker shirt

Mimmy reading to Audrey

We had brisket sliders, two kinds of hotdogs, brats, baked beans, pinwheels, veggies, watermelon, chips with various dips, margaritas, and lots of tasty dessert things...

Fresh veggie tray

Mmmmmmmm-mmmm-margs

Picture-perfect watermelon

By about 8:30pm, a handful of the group walked up the street a couple of houses to a house foundation that had been abandoned... it's up the hill a ways, and offers a great view of Joe Pool lake, where the fireworks were. By 9:30pm, when the fireworks began, there were probably close to 25 people and their children from all around the neighborhood gathered on the slab to watch the show.

Our view from the slab, pre-show

A blurry Elias with a sparkler

Shakin' sparklers!

Will shares in the sparkler fun

The first of the fireworks

A candy wrapper-style burst

A bomb bursting in air...

...and a rocket's red glare...

Grammy and Gramps spent the night, and in the morning after breakfast, Audrey got to have little story time with Gramps before they hit the road!

Hop on Pop

The Foot Book

We had a good Independence Day weekend! Baby pools were splashed in, friends were played with, and mass quantities of watermelon were consumed. Plus, we got to meet more of our spread-out neighbors! I'd say the only downfall of the weekend was Monday morning, when Leeloo escaped the yard and ran through a burr patch. Oh well, if that's the worst thing to happen on a 4th of July, I'll take it!