The Red, White & Blue!

This year Michael was on-call over the 4th of July so he had to stay home while I went down to be with Ga-Ga & Pa. 

Ga-Ga & Pa had actually had the kids since the night of the 1st. It was nice to have a bit of away time from them and it was good for them to have quality time with their grandparents! 

At first we weren't sure if Uncle Ry and Aunt Stephie were going to be able to make it, but they did and it was so nice to see them. Uncle Ry manned the grill for us! 

The hosts with the most! 

I wanted to get some cute pictures of the kids where the lighting was better, but the poor kids are being almost blinded by the sun. 

I bought Ella's dress from an ad I saw on Facebook a few months ago. It was supposed to be a Mommy and Me set. I still haven't rec'd mine and I'm pretty sure I never will. Oh well! She loves her and it's so cute on her! 

Owen didn't want to wear his hand-print shirt from last year so he chose this Red, White & Rock and Roll shirt! 

Zeke LOVES his hand-print shirt and wears it all the time. He had brought it to Ga-Ga & Pa's and then he wore it in the sandbox so it was dirty. 

I've been so impressed with how well the hand-print shirts have held up. The colors still look vibrant! Since they still fit the kids this year I thought it would be silly to make new ones...that and the Kuch's couldn't join us this year and I would have been sad making shirts without them. I do have a design in mind for next year though! 

Stephie was still recovering from a recent surgery so she was tired and they wanted to head home. 

So much fun celebrating with family! 

I just love all the red, white and blue clothing and decorations!!!!

Mom and Dad have beautiful patriotic bunting they put out on the front porch rails....it looks so nice!!! 

So much so I thought it would be fun to take pictures with the kids! 

I love everything about this picture except that Michael isn't in it! 

In years past we've taken the kids to Safeway and bought some fireworks, but this year was more subdued. Since Michael was home and the Jack and Ella had Summer Learning the next day I didn't want to spend the night or stay super late. In fact we left at 9pm and it wasn't even dark out yet....Owen was crying his head off in the van! He wanted to stay so bad! Next year will be back to normal since Michael for sure won't be on-call.

The kids did get to enjoy seeing some fireworks that the neighbors were shooting off. I'm not a huge fireworks fan...especially when kids are the ones light them and they haven't been taught. One girl had a lit Roman Candle and pointed it into the crowd honestly not know that it was going to shoot a firework out. Totally ridiculous! I was just waiting for someone to end up going to the hospital. In fact later that night there was an ambulance that came and got someone from the neighbors right next to my parents...not because of fireworks though. We think it might have been an overdose! 

I thought I would try for individual pictures again! 

Handsome boy! 

Love that cute braces smile! 

My boys! 

Ella carting Zeke around! 

If you saw my post on FB you'll know that the caption on this picture is...."Jack you know I just farted on you!" 

Like I said we stay until 9am and then it was time to head out. It wasn't a normal 4th of July, but it was memorable and next year will be even better! At least I hope there won't be any tears from my oldest!