Our Fourth of July

Our 4th of July started with our Ward Pancake breakfast at a local park. That was pretty fun. Ava enjoyed following the big kids around and at one point kept telling us she had to go potty. We haven't done any training with her yet due to new baby, etc. - so we think she heard another girl say it. I offered her the opportunity to do so but she declined.

We ran some errands after the breakfast and then went home and enjoyed some lovely naps. Chris awoke me around 3 in the afternoon, telling me that I had to get up and that the tornado sirens were going off. Not the best way to be woken up! Actually, it brought back a scary memory for me when I was in Jr. High. I came home from school one afternoon and decided to take a nap - the next thing I know one of my family members - I think my mom, was yelling at me to get in the basement. I hear the tornado sirens and freak out...everyone was downstairs except for me. I had no idea the weather had turned. We were fine but that's probably one of my least favorite memories.

Luckily, the severe weather and rain left us to be able to enjoy the 4th. We celebrated over at my brother Kevin and his wife Gaia's place. We did the traditional bbq cookout and then hung around and visited and later ventured outside.


Here's Kate and Ryan (1 month apart in age), playing the piano together. They were very sad when we made them stop...it was just too loud after a while. But they were cute! Here's Ava and Kate playing outside with the lame legal fireworks: poppers and such. I was inside caring for Elise so I'm not sure how Ava was playing outside without shoes. Must be Daddy's fault. ;)
Speaking of Daddy - Here he is acting a fool, getting overly excited with the sparklers. Hey - if you're going to joke around like that - it just might end up on my blog!
Me & Elise. You can't tell in this picture...or most of them - but Ava and Elise had matching skirts on.
The boys (and Ava in back) having oh so much fun with the sparklers. We were all kind of sad we couldn't light more things off. Well, I'm not that sad now that I have kids who need to sleep at night and naptime.
Here's my brother Craig, his wife Vanessa and their son, Ryan.

Group Photo. Ava actually really did enjoy her sparkler.
Here's Ava asking for another sparkler. She had just finished saying, "Pleeeease???"
Daddy & Ava....with Ava wearing shoe this time.

Elise was having fun too. After our fun with sparklers and poppers, some of us decided to go to GR's, a guy from our church, to watch his firework's display. It was actually really good for a private fireworks show. I was impressed. We were sitting really close though...it got very loud and very bright. I had to look away a few times in fear I might have a seizure. ;p
I got one pic of the kids watching the fireworks. I love the expresions in this photo! We brought bean bags for the kids to lay on. It was cute how William & Ava snuggled up with the bean bags and blanket. This pic was taken right after the first few fireworks. Obviously, William loved them...Ava not so sure.

It turns out that Ava thought they were too loud. She asked my sis, Gina, to "hold her ears". Gina covered her ears for a while and then noticed that Ava looked like she was asleep. I think she fell asleep for a while but we're not sure if she just did a good job of keeping her eyes closed and not answering us. Daddy made sure to cuddle her and make her feel safe when she was scared.

All in all, we had a long, but great day.