The Fourth Forever

Happy Birthday America!...for an entire week.  Did the Wednesday the 4th thing throw anyone else off?  

The great part was, we literally celebrated for what seemed like an entire week.  The kids loved it and we kept ourselves very busy.  The only downfall was I think I washed our July 4th swimsuits at least, well 4 times.  Right there towards the end, Maggie was starting to request her pink bathing suit again. A girl can only do without pink and tutus for so long.  Jack, on the other hand, was perfectly content as long as his had dark blue on it.  And clearly it did.

We started our celebration with our lake visit {which you can see a few posts back}.  That's when our bathing suits made their celebratory debut.  We grilled out and watched a 4th boat parade.  It was a great way to kick off the party.  

The rest of the week was pretty wet.  It looked something like this...

We spent actual Independence Day at the pool.  

The kids could not get enough of the water.  It's usually about July when their water confidence builds back up and they turn into little fish.

This was Jack and Maggie's July 4th {and the days following} pose.  I'm not sure where it came from, but I'm pretty sure I can guess who's idea it was.  I would guestimate that I have at least 30 pictures from a mere 7 days in this exact standing.  Cute huh?, but definitely not framable.

We enjoyed a very patriotic lunch.  

Speaking of lunch, Grandma provided the chicken salad.  Love having her and her chicken salad close by.  It was delish.  And then she got to endure a plethora of "Grandma watch this"'s from the pool.

Sometimes I just need tangible proof that even though I'm pregnant, I am still around.  So soak this in...me, a camera, and a pregnant body don't come together very often.

We have yet to visit the fireworks as a family on the 4th.  Someone's always too young or, well, basically that's the only reason.  So Maggie turned in early {she was wiped after a late afternoon BBQ and pool party at my Aunt and Uncle's} and I drove Jack back up to the club to watch the fireworks show.  It was sooooooooo long, but beautifully festive.  Next year is for sure Daddy's turn.  And then maybe in about 5 years we will all make it together.

The following Saturday we woke up and attempted to make these July 4th Wands as a family.  Hey, if you can't do fireworks as a family, then why not food?  Jack and Maggie each speared one skewer with blueberries and then were off on the back deck {yes, we have a deck now} eating watermelon scraps.  That left Daddy and I to cookie cut 30 star watermelons and spear 224 blueberries.  And why were we doing this, you may be wondering.  It was our contribution to the annual July 4th Cookout and Pool party at the Zimmerman's!

The kids got decked out in yet another, red,white, and blue ensemble and then we hit our new front porch for some patriotic pictures.  This photo session is always so easy...something about my kids and the American flag.  They love it.  Well, easy in the sense that they are happy about it, not easy in the sense that they are going to be tame.

But who wants tame pictures all the time?

We arrived at the Zimmerman's for some 4th pool fun.  My kids lasted about 3.5 minutes in their cute outfits before changing into their famous July 4th swimsuits.  They had the greatest time!  Jack swam his tail off.  And Maggie jumped, floated and played the entire party away.  Luckily Daddy did pool duty {didn't want to ruin the festivity with my big ol' belly in a bathing suit}.  I manned the yummy food.

I truly can't believe my eyes when I see how much this group of 4th babies have grown in size and in numbers.  Next year, we'll have to move up another step...more babies on the way.  

Happy Birthday America!