4th of July Festivities!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a crazy busy weekend by first kicking it off Friday with Gracie's birthday! I already posted that but it was so much fun. My baby girl is 4!

On Saturday, we had 2 parties. First we went to a surprise 75th birthday party for Grandpa Gil. His wife Patti, is my BFF and she surprised her hubby with a party. Their yard is beautiful and Gracie wanted to take her picture with Uncle Sam.

Bud sadly when the big surprise came, this little girl was tuckered out. After that, we headed to Aunt Dana's for some more fun. Aunt Lindsay had so much fun that she spilled some of her margarita on her baby! Poor Shelby. This was truly an accident! Here are some of my and my girls living up the summer life! Summer really is the greatest isn't it? Then I promised Gracie that we would swim in the pool. Dana let us borrow her daughter Allie's floaty thing. This was the first time Gracie swam by herself like that and she LOVED it! She did not want to get out. When I finally did manage to get her out, she had fun playing with Allie. On Sunday, we headed to my aunt and uncle's house for the annual Mueller 4th of July party! I look forward to this every year. My Uncle Jerry and Aunt Karen go all out. They have the coolest yard eve with a pool, playhouse, shuffleboard, porches. They have shuffleboard and bean bag touneys where they give out trophies too! And this year he rented 3 bouncy houses! Gracie was in heaven. Actually all my kids were. So we got dressed up in our red, white, and blue and headed there. Are these not the most adorable patriotic kids you have ever seen? Here we are by the playhouse with my cousin Jen and her daughter Addie. Man, did Jen and I and our other cousins live it up in that playhouse when we were younger. We lived in that thing! It was so awesome. Presley found some rocks and was happy with that. He sat around doing some people watching. Now the food at this party is awesome too! There is so much yummy stuff. Alhtough these two mainly filled up on watermelon. They probably ate about 10 slices! Miss Evie had to sit and relax after all that watermelon. And this girl was just begging to get in the pool again. So Daddy came to the rescue and took her in. But then Evie wanted to join in on some of that pool fun! After swimming, we went and ate some cupcakes in the playhouse. And then we went in Uncle Jerry's wonderland of a basement and did a little bowling. And he always puts on a fabulous fireworks display but we opted not to stay this year as the little ones were already up past their bedtime and Gracie was freaking out over the loud booms that were alreay going on so we headed home. Then today we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's for some more fun in the sun. Presley found Grandpa's broom and swept away. If you don't know, my son is in love with cleaning things like that. In fact, when we arrived there , Grandpa was vaccuuming and Presley just sat and watched in awe. Evie was all smiles as usual. And Gracie was wanting to take a ride on her new bike. So we headed to the front and she took off. She does really well! But first we had to find a baby doll to strap in the back. She told me she wanted to take Presley for a ride but I told her that he probably wouldn't fit. Bike riding made everyone hot so we decided to go swimming again. Only this time it was in a kiddie pool. We used to have a nice big pool but my dad tore it down a couple of years ago. Thanks dad! But we did have fun playing in the playhouse... And eating lunch at the picnic table.and going for a boat ride.Then we headed to Joliet to see the fireworks. Gracie and I went anyways. She couldn't wait to use some sparklers.And then we sat down and watched the awesome fireworks display. It was a great holiday weekend! God Bless America!