Fourth of July

For the seventh year we hosted a Fourth of July party at our house/backyard. We were missing the Shondelmyers this year as they had family plans out of town. It wasn't the same without them, but we partied hard with our favorite neighborhood families. 

The kids planned a Fourth of July concert to kick off the festivities. They are always planning and practicing for shows together. I love their creativity, and also that they have such a large group of built in friends to pull off fun things like this. 

Benjamin Franklin was our host for the afternoon.

Nathan, Daniel, Samuel, and Katherine formed a band known as The Black Cats. They performed a few songs together. 

The girls in the group formed their own singing group, The Sparklers, and they were absolutely adorable. 

Is it even a concert without Church Clap!

Nathan performed a guitar solo of You Can Count on Me

They ended the show with a group performance of the Star Spangled Banner. What a great show!

Afterward, everyone went back to our house to play and prepare for dinner. 

Matt broke out the BB gun for the guys. 

We enjoyed a traditional Fourth of July feast. 

After dinner, Elena and her sister Lily had prepared a neighborhood scavenger hunt. Each family was a team and we traveled all over the neighborhood finding clues. 

If you know anything about my kids, you know this was their favorite thing ever, and also that they were in it to win it!

At Kidsborough we had to send in a selfie. We also found a clue at the adjoining neighborhood pool, our pool, two neighbor's houses, and the pond. The hunt ended with a cup stack challenge. 

I think Elena wanted us to get to know more of our neighbors 😊

We were the first team finished, so we posed for a couple of pictures while we waited for the other families. 

Then we had to get our annual group "fence" pictures of the kids. 

Aren't these two the cutest!

Always grateful to celebrate this holiday with so many of our favorite people. Elisabeth says she likes it more than Christmas. 

Finally, we let the kids start lighting stuff on fire. 

Our kids really like blowing stuff up!

Fingerlights have become an annual tradition. It's a favorite sight to see all the kids' lit up fingers running all around the backyard. Memories!

Fourth of July 2023 went out with a bang! Can't wait for next year!

Weekend in Iowa

 At the end of June, we took a road trip to Iowa to visit the Flamings. We arrived Friday afternoon, and the kids immediately started playing together like no time had passed since our last visit. They put on skit, made a fort with the nugget, and played video games. 

The little girls were inseparable for the weekend, putting on fashion shows, learning about Pokemon, and playing outside. 

Meanwhile, the adults stayed up late playing board games- our favorite thing to do together. We taught them a new favorite, Everdell.

Because of a few issues going on in the Flamings' home, we stayed at a hotel during our visit. Samuel was stoked for hotel breakfast. He can put the food away at breakfast!

The kids swam on Saturday morning, we had lunch in our hotel, and then headed back to the Flamings to play games for the afternoon/evening. 

These cousins seemed to read each other's minds and dressed alike on Saturday. 

Jeremy, Anna, Matt and I played lots of games on Saturday. We played Master of Orion, Zombie Fluxx, an online app game, and ended the evening with learning how to play Castles of Burgundy, which kept us up way too late (maybe we should have taken the 25 minute YouTube rules explanation as a sign that it was a complicated game, ha!)

We wore Little Bit out that night!

We pretty much repeated the same routine on Sunday. We're pretty predictable. 

The kids played telephone at every meal. 

They played really well together all day. Amelia introduced them to a new online app game where they answered questions, played pictionary, wrote jokes, etc. It was a fun way for the four big cousins to play all together.

Meanwhile, the adults defeated Voldemort. Jeremy taught us their Hogwarts Battle cooperative game. 

We also replayed Masters of Orion, Castles of Burgundy and ended the night with another round of Everdell. So fun!

We might have kept the kids up way past their bedtimes, but since they were playing video games, I don't think they minded it too much. They were all begging us to start another game at 10:00 that night when we were trying to say goodbye. 

Samuel asked for a goodbye picture with Pearl. 

For a variety of reasons, we went through a bit of a drought with getting together with the Flamings, but I'm so glad we're over that! We already booked our next visit in the Fall. 

I always will wish that my mom could watch these precious kids grow up. She was so proud of them. I also know she'd be proud of me and my brother for keeping the family together even without her physical presence. 

We were worn out in the best way on Sunday night. 

We drove home on Monday morning to get ready for our annual Fourth of July party!