Fun on the Fourth!

I have a confession (which will be totally surprising), but I LOVE the 4th of July!  The food, the fireworks, the pool, the red white and blue- I love it all (and it probably also doesn't hurt that my birthday is 2 days before)!   I love to dress everyone up, to be outside in the heat, to hang out for the day especially when it's in the middle of the week like this year.

Our neighborhood seems to share the same love for the 4th of July as I do so, of course, we join in on all the patriotic activities.  Our day was pretty much complete, everything I love in a day- a parade, a hot dog, a nap, the pool, a burger, wine, some fireworks, some friends.  Ahhh, here we go!

We started the day off with the Cinco Ranch festivities at the lake across the street.  They have a parade for the parents kiddos to decorate their bikes, or wagons, or scooters, or pets. It's so much fun to see what everyone will come up with.  This was our first year to be in the parade- we've been spectators the past couple of years but this year Emery was ready to decorate her bike and join in!

The parade goes down a couple of streets by the lake and everyone comes out to wave at the kids and Emery absolutely ate it up (Beckett rode in the wagon, but didn't share Emery's enthusiasm for waving)!

(aren't they cute?!?)

After the parade we got hot dogs and waited in line for which was another first for us.  Being the train enthusiast he is, we knew Beckett would love to ride the train and we were finally going to have to bite the bullet and do it.  I know I love the 4th, but man it it was a warmish wait for that train!  We were all pretty much done with the Cinco festivities after the train- it was hot, we were tired, and we still had big plans for the rest of the day!

After we got a little lunch in our tummies, and took some naps and headed to the Water Park (our favorite pool in the area!).  Emery and Beckett just finished swimming lessons and she was so excited to go practice everything she learned.  She made friends with an older girl who was on the swim team and this girl was SO sweet to her!  She was teaching her how to breathe and helped Emery dive for toys.  There are some seriously sweet kiddos out here.  Someone is ALWAYS willing to play with my kids and my kids just eat it up.

Look at my babies, aren't they cute and summery with their crazy pool hair?!? :)

After a couple of hours at the pool we stopped at the fireworks stand to shoot of from our house that evening.  This was the first time in about 4 years that we have seen fireworks and Emery's (and Beckett's for that matter) first experience with them.  She was pretty unsure about them, but Matt set her up with range headphones to block out the loud noises and she seemed pretty ok with that.

After a stop for fireworks it was time to head home for some burgers!  We didn't end up eating dinner until almost 8:30 which is also unheard of for us- that is the time we are usually starting to shut things down and head to bed!  But I figured it was a special holiday so we threw our normal out the window for the day.

The weather was absolutely wonderful so we grilled some burgers and ate outside- again, another one of my favorite things to do that doesn't happen that often!  The kids were too excited about the upcoming fireworks to eat much, but they gave it a shot.  I was excited about my burger and I ate it all- don't worry. :)

Around 9:00 we headed to our neighborhood park to watch the fireworks with our friends.  There is a big display that happens about a mile away from our house, so several of our neighborhood friends went down to the park to watch them (we have an unobstructed view of them).  Emery went with one friend and Beckett went with another and we all got to enjoy the show (and set off a few of our own), Emery even got brave and took her headphones off so she could get the full experience.  Or maybe it was so she could talk to Sergio.  Regardless, my big girl sat through the show and was super brave!

We finally all came in and got settled into bed around 10:30 (yikes!).  It was pretty much my ideal day.  The kids are getting so big and we all have so much fun on these family holidays we get to spend together just enjoying each others company and playing.  Happy 4th!!!

Oh- and just for grins- here's me and my baby boy last year at the same festivities.  He didn't even need shoes on!!!