4th of July

We are lucky enough to have a great view of the fireworks show that our city puts on at the high school right from our driveway, so we put Ella to bed on time let the girls stay up a little bit late and pulled our chairs onto the driveway for 20 minutes of
lights! It was perfect. :)

We spent the week leading up to the 4th talking about the significance of the holiday and the girls wanted me to sing the "Star Spangled Banner" over and over again and every time we pass by a flag since then they shout "There's the Star Spangled Banner!"

I've never seen so many melons in our house at one time. Our house smelled like the produce isle in a grocery store.

Lance had the fun privilege of being asked to head up the cooking for the 4th of July breakfast about 5 days before we actually had it. They were doing a full pancake, egg, sausage, and fruit breakfast for about 250 people. He did an awesome job, and I think it brought him back to the days when we worked as a Chef for a few years! :)

Someone from the picnic took this picture of Mia and a friend sent the link with some other pictures to me. I said..."Oh Mia when did someone take your picture?" and she said, "Oh yeah...I was lost and couldn't find you and someone asked if they could take my picture....Why did they want to take my pictures???"

Mia riding in the Bike Parade. So there is sad sad story behind the balloon you see in the pictures. Maddi had a matching one on her scooter and after getting a little overwhelmed by all the bike parade excitement she came to sit on the sidelines and I think she must have been playing with the string on the balloon because I turned around, heard heartbreaking crying and screaming and, saw Maddi pointing up at the sky while her balloon floated away! The tragedies in the life of a 3 year old. :( I think I had a least 10 people come up to me and say I should probably just stop by the store on the way home and buy her a new balloon...it was really a pretty pathetic sight. But thankfully she recovered fairly quickly. :)

The 4th (actually 5th) of July Breakfast.