Independence Day

Well, everyday is "independence day" at our house (Noah: "I'll do it!", Lincoln: "Self! Self!")...but this post is referring to the 4th of July! We had a great 4th & enjoyed a get together at our friends' the Donnelly's. One of the best parts to me was that it was in a fenced in backyard, so I didn't have to worry about the boys getting messy and running off...that meant that the adults got to relax and visit too!

Of course another great part of the evening was the yummy food. Here's a picture, from before we left for the party, of Noah and I with the fruit pizza that I made! My wonderful husband even made a second trip to the store for white peaches.

Noah & Nate feeling festive with their flags.

Lincoln fully decked out in patriotic garb.

The kids really enjoyed just running around, swinging, and playing with each other. Lincoln thought that swinging on his tummy was a riot because he thought that he was flying. He'd put out his hands, make flying noises and just laugh like he was so amused with himself.

Linc & Ezra.


Lincoln was going down the slide and at the bottom throwing up his arms in an Olympian-gymnast finish while saying "ta-da!"...until I pulled out the camera of course. You can catch the arms up and quick "ta-da" right at the end of this clip as he's running away though.


Lincoln at almost 20 months.

Cute little Miss Anna, who I have the pleasure of babysitting a couple days each week.

Leave it to my boys to come up with something like this. They decided that wearing buckets on their heads was really fun - especially since they had a "chin strap". Several of the adults at the party pointed that out and were quite amused.

Silly bucket heads. Ha!


From Donnelly's backyard we have a great view of the local firework show. By the time it got dark and we were waiting for the fireworks to start Lincoln was wiped out. He climbed up into my lap and just sat there for well over an hour. I was in baby cuddling heaven - he doesn't usually do that for very long.

Yeah...so this is you can get when you try to get 6 kids 4 and under to sit in one spot for a picture:

Sparkler time!

One of those few contradictory moments that we actually encourage our children to play with fire...

Thanks for a great party, Donnellys! We had such a great time.