Fourth

“Mom, what is tomorrow?” asked Lacy before heading to bed on the 3rd of July.
“The Fourth of July,” I said.
“I know, I know,” she shook her head, “But what is it CALLED?”
“The Fourth of July?” I asked, not really sure what she was fishing for.
“Mom. I KNOW that. What ELSE is it called?”
“Independence Day?” I offered.
“Right. Oh, right. I remember now.”

She’s SO official, friends. So very official. If only her mother would hurry up and get on the same page (Fourth of July? Humph. Lame.)
Our Independence Day was FULL of goodness.
We started off our day by going to the Park where there was games, booths, and a Volleyball tournament. Our own Family Founding Father was on the winning team:

The kids weren’t interested in watching Dad play, so they ran around the park with tickets in hand and cotton candy on face.

I was Dad’s main cheerleader. ‘cept I wasn’t that good.
“Did you see that, babe?”
“Um… see which thing?”
“When I _________.”
“Oh, I must have JUST looked away…”
I didn’t miss everything, and I was able to catch a bump using my camera’s continuous picture taking thingy trick:

And I did finally catch a picture of him serving… one that included him AND the ball. Watch out for my professional athletic photographer debut:

Alice enjoyed most of the first part of her first Independence Day by sleeping in her stroller. But when she was awake, she was just darling. All 6 month old babies are just darling, but mine? She’s THE Darling.

You can’t argue with that face. It’s downright darling.

That afternoon, we lazed on a shaded deck with friends and ate hot dogs and dip and chips and watermelon and iced sugar cookies while misters kept us cool and thunder rumbled in the background.
“…while the little ones play[ed] on the floor with the dogs.”
Actually, the little ones played on a water slide in their swimsuits and barely took time to eat anything. Alice drank blueberry lemonade with me and eventually fell asleep.
I was so jealous of her nap under the water misters.
There’s no pictures of The Perfect Afternoon because I was busy not moving. You can’t move when you have a sleeping baby on top of you.

We drove from one friendly BBQ to one family BBQ (though to be fair, they were equally as friendly).
And then we headed out to park in our favorite family spot for Fireworks. We park sort of behind the mountain the fireworks are shot off in front of. It gives us a close up view and a pretty non-crowded spot.
The kids sat together and enjoyed their light-up rings my cousin Rachel picked up for them.

Then they split off into their respective pairs.

I split off with my pair for a second as well… just long enough to prove that I was there this Independence Day.

The kids were so excited when Grandpa and Grandma pulled up with their load of sparklers… this picture cracks me up.
Never before have these children held so still all at once, but sparklers are worth waiting The Good Wait.

The pay off:

The rest of my pictures are on my phone which can’t be accessed right now… so they’ll have to wait. The kids went nuts over the fireworks, and Alice Michelle hardly minded them at all. They certainly didn’t interfere with her evening nap.
But during the fireworks, she did start running a fever.
She ran the fever all night and is still a little heating pad this morning. She’s all smiles, so I’m not too worried. But I do feel for her. It isn’t fair to be so hot on the inside when it’s already almost 100 degrees on the outside.

More pictures of our Independence Day to come!