4th of July

We had an absolutely amazing 4th of July weekend!  if you know anything about me, then you know that Christmas is my favorite holiday, but the 4th comes in a very close second.  I love the colors, looks, foods, everything!  I especially love decorating our home...










 Our church has always had their festival over the 4th and it has now grown into a 20,000+ people festival!

And of course the 4th is extra special to me because Brad proposed to me at the parade 19 years ago!  My how time flies....

When we lived in town, we had our group of 4 couples and their kids come over for a big fish fry on the 3rd and then we would walk up to the grounds.  Everyone would spend the night and we would make a huge breakfast the next morning and then walk up for the parade.  Sometimes I wonder how we did it with small kids, haha!

I came home on Friday and Rachel and Emma had made their cakes to take down to the church for the cake stand.  They have tons of food, beer tents, kids games and concerts.

Saturday we (and by "we" I mean Brad:) finished up the landscaping around the pool.  Brad laid down landscape timbers and pea rock.  I forgot the after picture..

Saturday we were all exhausted and in bed by 10.  Sunday morning I was busy in the kitchen.  I made corn and black bean salsa, cut up a big watermelon, made a hotdish, and cinnamon rolls.

Sunday after lunch we all got in the pool, it was glorious!!  I think we were in for about 3 hours.  Definitely got some sun!

We all got showered up and ready and headed into our sister and brother-in-law's to eat some supper and hang out for a bit before heading uptown.

There were a TON of people up there, holy cow.  We enjoyed some mini donuts and the girls played some games and we listened to the band they had.  At 10:00 they have fireworks.  Love our little town!

Monday morning I was up by 4:30 (we get a random call about once a month at 4:30 in the morning) and couldn't fall back asleep, so I figured I might as well get up and get some stuff done!

We decided on Sunday that we were going to have a pool party after the parade with Brad's family.  I was so glad I had made some appetizers on Sunday.  Emma and I also made some rice krispy treats and pretzel rods.

The parade is always fun, I love that my girls still like to dress up for the 4th!

These two are best friends!

People started coming around 1:30 and it was a great afternoon!  Although the sun went away completely, it didn't stop the kiddos from having fun in the pool!

After everyone left we headed over to the farm for a bonfire and fireworks.  It's so nice because even though we are about 10-15 miles from where they shoot off the fireworks, we can still see them!  We were exhausted by the end of the night, and all crashed hard.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!