My favorite 4th of July tradition is Fireworks at a nearby town called Lansdowne. It's a resort community and at the base of the golfing range, they shoot fireworks. The best part is the event takes place before the 4th of July, so whatever you decide to do, at least you get in your big show. It gets a little crazy and crowded and parking is a mess, but it's still really cool. This year, we invited the Tikalskys, and Bryan is a map guy. He decided to go off the grid a little and found this park (which I had no idea existed) at the base of the golf range. It was amazing! The fireworks exploded right over our heads, and we were within reach of the firetruck, which is always a good thing! The kids played soccer and frisbee before the event started. We got eaten alive my mosquitos, but overall, it was a success!
Xander, Tyler, Declan.
Weird. The same picture - one with / one without flash.
Cache and Joshua.
Before the real 4th of July, we drove to Emerald Isle to stay at my Boss' beach house.
David just upgraded my toll pass so I can use the express lane for free when I have more than 3 people in the car, which is basically always. This pass came in handy on the terrible 95 as my lanes were completely open as the main traffic came to a standstill.
And the reward for driving 7 hours...the most beautiful beach!
My bosses grandkids (who are also our friends) were also staying at the house and made great buddies for the kids.
Trying to undo some stress-wrinkles.
The media room...aka...fort room.
We played games in the shade next to the pool.
And how did 20 people fit into this beach house...because it's a 8 master bedroom mansion with an elevator as shown behind Xander's head!
David met up with us on the 4th of July and stayed through the weekend.
Loving this kid and his tan lines!
Cool clouds.
The boys found tons of little minnows along the shallows.
The 4th of July was amazing. There were shows in every direction...6 different explosions all around us...with a beautiful night sky and the ocean...it was awesome!
Yep, and plenty of this too. Afterall, the beach is pretty exhausting!
We played lots of pool too...but without the ques. Much safer!
David made a huge bubble wand and the kids chased and popped the bubbles. The wind of the ocean made it a little hard to get really big ones, but it was still pretty cool.
Easton's pit of fish. He always finds a way around the rules.
This was his version of catch and release (although he did eventually put these guys back in the ocean).
And then the rain struck. Luckily we just had 1 rainy day and it didn't last too long.
We decided to go to the aquarium...but had to wait a minute before getting out of the car!
We made it just in time for the show.
Makes me think of Sebastian the crab from The Little Mermaid.
The fun sting ray petting station.
It took the boys a few minutes to get the confidence to reach in.
Baby dinosaur Easton.
Me - 'Cache, why are you covering your privates'
Cache - 'Because I was just born and I'm naked'
They had a fun outdoor dinosaur exhibit that had moving dinosaurs and sound effects.
This was a cool park along the nature trail.
The soggy 'floating' bridge that wasn't exactly floating after the storm.
Turtles are awesome.
This shark looks like he's trying to take a bit out of Xander!
Good bye beach, we love you!
At Costco, I asked Easton to go take some pictures of books he may want to check out at the library. Instead, I got about 10 pictures like this...
The best day of the year...FREE Chick-fil-a day!!!
2 things wrong with this picture...
the first, is obvious.
the second, is we were at a 2nd hand store and he put this on his head!
I loved playing street rollerblade hockey as a kid. We have these cool hockey stadiums where we live and I decided it was time to check one out. We invited some friends, and everyone got suited up..and let's just say it lasted about 10 minutes. Ok, it was super hot, and our friends didn't know how to use rollerblades very well...but we will keep trying.
Wendys was needed to bring our spirits back up!
Today was also Luke's birthday. We loved the size of his little frosty.
Easton saved a few fireworks from the 4th of July to light off for his birthday.
I spent a few days making cat throw blankets for Marcy. We had some scraps leftover and Declan helped me make a pillowcase for him. He did some hand-stitches then we went over it with the sewing machine.
It turned out super cute.
My next project was edging the rock and shell garden. Our family loves to gather and collect things when we are out. We have the coolest rocks and shells and I'm running out of places to put them all!
Hence, the creation of these gardens! The edging was more work than I thought, but it looks great.
It's been a long time since my hands were this dirty!
And wallah! How did I get my nails so clean? I just put them up in the shower close to the shower head and it cleans the nails right up. Sometimes I think I'm so smart.
Yep, this is what the kids had for dinner since I was so tired from outdoor work!
I'm not sure how this happended, but we watched Sharknado 4 or 5. It was much better than the 1st or 2nd one we watched for 10 minutes previously and shut off because it was so stupid.
Marble painting.
Ole' faithful... the sprinkler under the trampoline.
Loving our hammock on the front porch. Got this baby for $5 at 5 and Below.
Yep, not in the mood to cook this summer.
Some really old fish sticks from deep in the freezer and the vegetable counterpart.
There's always tomorrow.
I love tennis and I'm looking forward to the day when I can actually play it with the kids. Easton is getting closer...but when we go with the twins, it's me and Easton hitting the balls to the twins over and over with the occasional return. But at least they are cute.
Cache has me addicted to looking for nice cars. Now I take pictures of them (if I can) to show him.
The kids all love playing chess.
Declan bought this 300 piece puzzle for $1 at a garage sale. It even had all the pieces. Once in a while, we enjoying starting a puzzle and everyone kind of works on it throughout the week. Declan definitely did the most work on this one though.
Xander showing his strength as he crossed along these bars all the way on each side to get the handles for the next person. This park has a cool new zip line. We made tons of videos with the kids on it.
My neighbor grew the most amazing zuchinni and squash garden. I looked up fun recipes and found this cool fritter that was delicious!
These are Declan's teeth from our shark tooth expedition along the Peace River in March.
He has been asking me to make a skull out of them. It took me 4 months to get to it, but it turned out pretty cool!
Let the crazy summer weather begin...what exactly does this forecast mean???
