Happy Birthday, America!

We had a terrific July 4th weekend! We stayed SO busy for all three days of our long weekend, but we had SO much fun!

Jeff had Friday off from work, so we headed to Marsh Creek State Park with our neighbors, The Hattons (including Avery's "best neighbor boy," Logan). We swam, ran through sprinklers, played in/near a lake, had a nice little cookout, and spent some time with our wonderful friends.

Avery and Logan LOVED swimming! They spent most of our time at Marsh Creek splashing around in the pool. Noel, on the other hand, liked getting in and out and in and out and in and out of the pool. The child has zero body fat and freezes if the stays in pool water too long. After just a few minutes of swimming with Avery and Logan, his lips would be blue and his jaw would start chattering. Poor skinny boy...

We spent ALL DAY at the park. The kids played until they could play no more. It took mere minutes for them to fall asleep in the car on the ride home.

On Saturday morning (July 4th), we got the kids up and dressed in their red, white and blue garb and headed over to our park to line-up for the bike parade that kicks off the annual Penfield Civic Association's July 4th Celebration. Our kids LOVE this event! And, really, what's not to love about a parade, fire truck rides, a moonbounce, face painting, balloons, noshing on hotdogs/pretzels/water ice, and running around with friends? Again, our kids played until the could play no more...

After a cool treat and a long nap, we all headed to another July 4th celebration...the biennial Cumberland Road Block Party. We, of course, don't live on Cumberland Road, but The Hattons do, and they invited us to attend the party with them. It was such a great get-together! We knew quite-a-few people there, but met several new folks, as well. Our kids played with their pals in a pool, ran around, and ate and ate and ate. Much to Avery's delight, there was even a little fireworks show! Noel tuckered out kinda early (which was okay because so did Momma!), but Avery and Jeff were party animals! Avery was still going strong at almost 11:00pm when Jeff decided she should head to bed...

By Sunday, we were all exhausted! We went to church in the morning and then had a (much needed!) lazy Sunday at home. Oh yeah, and we made the flag cake that we didn't have time for the day before...YUMMY!

[Below is what occurs when Avery is prompted to smile...her neck gets all twisty, her face begins contorting, her eyes dart around (looking everywhere but at the camera), and she develops a pretty serious underbite. She has such a beautiful smile, but she has yet to figure out how to display it on demand...]

What a wonderful summer weekend!