John does all the barbecuing on the 4th, so Cole went with him to help this year. Audrey and I headed to church first. She insisted on wearing her hair in pigtail braids minutes before we left. It looked cute on her, but I had not planned for her to wear her hair up which meant no cute matching 4th of July bows. What??? I took this picture at church just to document the fact that she is WAY too young to have hairstyle opinions already, right? :) I love her independence.
The church presented me with bibles for Cole and myself for being baptized on June 27. I hope to get some of those pictures posted this week. I wish that Cole would have been at church to receive his bible and to shake hands with everyone after the service. It was so sweet!
After church we went to my mother-in-law’s house for BBQ hamburgers and hot dogs, soda pop, homemade ice cream and lots of other goodies.
After lunch, there were lots of water balloons waiting to be filled and thrown.
John was lucky not to be a recipient of a wet shirt from all the water balloons flying around.
Sarita and Claudia and their sisterly love…
A little ballet demonstration
Audrey doing her famous Cole-taught-me-how-to-pose-like-this pose
Cole got soaked by his own balloon ( I’m a huge fan of physical comedy, so things like this or pants splitting just crack me up!)
No one is safe from Audrey’s water balloons, not even Uncle Tom.
Getting their feet wet
Feeding Granny’s chickens
After the kids ate and played for awhile, we brought Claudia and Sarita back to our house so the kids could swim and play. The first time the kids got in the pool, it started raining.
Audrey enjoyed all the attention she got from Claudia in the pool. Sarita was snuggled up asleep on the couch, so we let her rest.
Patriotic swimsuit
After we finished playing, napping, and eating strawberries and Cool Whip, we headed to the fireworks stand for more fireworks and then back to Granny’s.
The kids with their Uncle Phil and some of their fireworks loot
I spent WAY too much money on sparklers because I thought it would be the one thing that Audrey enjoyed doing since she was too small to do much else.
No such luck. She had one sparkler and that was enough. She was too scared that they would hurt her. It’s not like her to be this cautious, so it really caught me off guard.
Audrey enjoyed popping bubbles.
I think Granny enjoyed blowing them, too. :) She is a very hands-on grandma. She really enjoys playing with the kids and she comes up with such creative ideas.
Audrey didn’t like that Uncle Phil was sitting in ‘Mommy’s chair’. She made it a point to tell him that it was my chair. He didn’t say anything, but when he got up, he got in one of the blue ones. Oh my goodness! Where does she get her boldness? We weren’t even sitting in the chairs.
Cole spent the majority of the evening lighting fireworks. In case you are wondering why there aren’t many pictures of Cole it’s because he wouldn’t let me take his picture. He made it a point to do something goofy in each one or he would intentionally hide. I guess he is now at that stage where everything I do is going to drive him nuts. Maybe it’s just the fact that I tend to take pictures like a Mamarazzi. Nah, couldn’t be me.
Audrey was done with the fireworks and wanted to go inside. I couldn’t be in both places at once and felt like Cole was too young to do fireworks by himself. So, Wanda got Audrey a bucket of water and let her water the plants.
It was a very busy day, but one filled with lots of great memories. We are so very blessed to have the freedom to live, love and worship by our own choice. I’m very thankful that others are willing to sacrifice their lives to protect the lives of my family and friends. I hope everyone had a great 4th of July!
