4th of July 2015

A few days earlier I had Stella and Briggs over for a sleepover so the kids made their 4th of July t-shirts.  They did a great job and I was just glad to have them done before midnight on July 3rd!  Amber thought I was brave for letting 4 kids paint on shirts and encouraging their creative side to "do whatever!"  I laughed and said "as soon as they got bored I sent them to Uncle Brandon and I finished all of them!" Amber and I are of like mind -- we don't like mixing play-doh colors and it's hard to watch our kids craft because we want to do it!  But we let it go, take a deep breath and let them do what they want (and sometimes fix it later when they aren't looking!).

We had a cookout the night before with friends, but called it an early night because we had a big day ahead of us.  My friend and I did the Firecracker 5000 run downtown.  It was different route due to the flooding downtown and we didn't get to run by the giant flag by the river...I was kind of bummed about that, but we had a great race.  Because we finished soooo fast we had time to go to Panera for breakfast!  Then we headed to a parade, where the hubbies and the kids had gone earlier to save us seats.  

That evening we went to a riverfront hotel that hosts a 4th of July celebration.  They had food, games and activities.  We had a front row seat to the fireworks, which were fabulous!  The kids tried to sleepover in their cousins room, but they both ended up with us by midnight.  We all slept in and then headed down for breakfast.  Amber found us a wonderful spot outside to eat and it was a beautiful, peaceful, calm Sunday morning breakfast.  I love eating breakfast outside!  This was probably my favorite part of the whole experience!

They could have played this all night!

They had a band and Elizabeth could not walk by without dancing!  Briggs was a willing participant!

The outdoor breakfast

Brandon and I are going to have to brush up on our American history because the kids are starting to ask questions. Thank goodness for Google (and I know that won't be the last time I say that!)