4th of July weekend

The smell of BBQ is in the air, the sound of kids splashing in the pool, and it is over a hundred degrees outside - must be 4th of July!! We spent the 4th at we do most years, hanging poolside at our house until mid-afternoon when we head over to Dave & Debbie's for dinner and good seats for the local high school's firework show. This year Amelia did not make it to see the firework show though so I watched it from the roof of Paul's truck (hence the tree to the left hand side of the above photo!)

We all worked up an appetite swimming all day, which is a good thing because we had quite a feast prepared! Paul used his smoker to smoke some ribs and I made Butterfinger ice cream in my ice cream machine. I also made this red, white and blue appetizer which was a big hit! It has blueberries, cranberries and brie cheese wrapped in a crescent roll. I decorated it with some cute out stars to make it extra festive for the holiday!

All the kids had a great time playing with each other. After swimming they ran around to kill time until it got dark enough for fireworks. Amelia loves to watch the kids, and actually all three kids are very sweet with her and include her as much as possible in their activities. She loved watching them run around and would stand there and laugh to herself as they ran around her.

The three older kids all looked especially cute in their patriotic outfits!

We also managed to get some cute family pics during the day as well....

When it was finally dark enough for the firework show it proved to be worth the wait! It was a great show and then we did a few little fireworks of our own. Alex was unsure about the Morning Glory's though!

All in all it was a happy and safe 4th of July! Hope everyone else out there had a happy and safe holiday as well!