Happy Weekend

Our 4th of July could have been depicted in a Norman Rockwell painting.

It was simple, spent with friends and family, and very fun.

The festivities actually started Friday night after Steve brought home what will now be known as the best $34 ever spent.  It was cheap blow up pool from Kings.

Add a few expensive gallons of city water and we had hours of fun!

Sunday evening this man promised my boys that if they got their chores done early Monday morning, he would take them to Target to blow all their money on Legos.  At 6:10 am Monday morning, Carter woke me up to tell me he was going to clean my toilet.  

When asked why he woke me up so early, Carter retorted that Dad had told him to let him sleep in until 7:00, so he woke me up instead.  Nice.

When I rolled out of bed at 6:30, the toilets had been cleaned, the trees had been watered and our front yard looked like it was being set up for a garage sale.  The boys had cleared out the garage so Steve could sweep it out.  

By 9:00 am, the garden was weeded, the garage had been cleaned and Steve and the boys were on their way to Target.   They brought me home a BIG soda.  

I needed it by then!

The afternoon was spent in the back yard "swimming" in two feet of grassy water.

Saylor mostly sat on the benches and enjoyed cold watermelon.

Andrew worked on his siphoning skills.

Carter...well Carter gave a lot of great looks.

I just like this picture.  Say Say loves her feet.

We invited my parents over for dinner and invited over some friends and more family over to watch fireworks and have kids play in the pool...which turned into a gigantic mud pit by the end of the night.

Dinner included grilled chicken, fresh fruit and an amazing salad made by my mother from spinach and lettuce grown in her garden.  Have I said that I love summer?

Saylor is adored by her grandparents!

The best part of the evening was watching neighbor kids and nieces light things on fire.

I'm impressed no one was burned.

We might be creating pyro's here.

We stayed up until almost midnight setting off firecrackers and watching the illegal fireworks set off by people in surrounding neighborhoods.  Steve purchased one BIG illegal firework entitled the 

"Mother Load."

As I watched it light up the sky above our home, I thought for sure our house was going to burn to the ground.  

Steve is lucky it didn't.

We also celebrated Steve's Dad's birthday.  Mike and Chenele brought over Lazy Daisy cake and ice cream.  It was delicious.

Happy Birthday Gary!  

I honestly hope every Fourth of July can be like this one.  It was picture perfect.