July 4th & 24th!!!

The 4th of July was a fun Holiday.  Usually we buy the Old Navy flag T-shirts for everyone to wear.  I think this is the first time in a decade we haven’t bought them.  I had fun dressing up the girls in cute red-white-&-blue instead.
 
The 4th is also Tom’s birthday.  I made him patriotic fruit tacos for breakfast.  It’s always fun to have daddy home on his birthday!
  
That evening we went to our family pool for a party.  The kids had fun swimming, other than Sophie who was a little scared of the water.  She wasn’t afraid of the diving board though!
 
We got pizza for dinner and by then all of our extended family had left so it was nice to just have my dad, Suzy, my siblings and our kids there.

That night we met up with our friends from the ward to watch the city fire works.  The kids had more fun running around than watching the show.  We all have kids similar ages, so its fun to get them together.  It was impossible to get a picture of the toddlers without at least one of them blurry!
 
While we were waiting for the firework show to start we did some pop-its and sparklers.  Poor Sophie burned a blister on her finger.
 
Then we ate treats and watched the fun firework show!



The 24th of July is Pioneer Day.  It’s not as big of a holiday as the 4th, but still fun.
The day before, my friend, Tiffany and I took the kids to the float show.  It’s free and so fun!  We had ten kids between the two of us (four of our own, plus two boys Tiffany was watching).  Tessa and Sophie are such cute friends.
 
The kids got asked to be on the news!  You can see the news anchor surrounded by all the kids.
 
Of course, we had to get balloon animals/weapons (dog, gun, bow & arrow and parrot).
   
There are so many fun games, activities and treats at the float show!
 
As we were leaving I noticed Cedric was missing.  I was just about to go back into the expo to look for him when I saw a boy in an orange shirt holding a ladies hand in the parking lot.  When I spotted the bright blue Crocs I knew it was Cedric and went running to get him!  Luckily, the lady was bringing him back to find me and I gave Cedric a big lecture about not leaving buildings without me, etc.  And I’m glad I saw him or I could’ve spent a long time looking for him in the expo.  He’s always been my wandering child.  I’m so glad he was safe!

The 24th was just like any other day.  Tom got up and went to work, the kids and I got jobs done around the house, etc.  We did watch some of the parade on TV and I couldn’t help but get a little emotional remembering the traditions we had growing up of going to the parade every year, Grandpa announcing the floats, sleeping over as teenagers, yummy food and fun with cousins.
  That afternoon we went to the dairy pool again for a party.  This time Sophie was a lot more daring to get in the water.  Lily is getting to be such a good swimmer and diver.  Jeff is getting more adventurous in the water too!



Then we had a big pot luck dinner.  Tom showed up for dinner, although we didn’t see much of each other with all that was going on.

The older kids wanted to stay and do fireworks, but Sophie was done (not to mention terrified of firecrackers) and Cedric was anxious to get home and play the Wii game he had just borrowed.  So Tom took the two little ones home and I stayed with the older two.

When we got home that night, they also went to our neighbors houses and did a few more fireworks with them too (we are too cheap to buy our own).
I love summer holidays!