Our 4th and Andy's Birthday Celebration

As most of you already know, the fourth of July is not just Independence day around here...it's Andy's birthday! A celebration in deed. It was a wonderful weekend. It started out with Andy doing an amazing amount of work in our yard...the phrase, "the pile is gone" was said quite a few times! :) Then, the rest of the weekend was enjoyed with family. Thank you everyone that came and also for bringing all the yummy food!! Cute. Andy got a kick out of the cake, especially getting to eat these trees.

Daddy's girl. In the background, Wendy & Jim. Friends of my parents from Wisconsin. They were in town celebrating their wedding anniversary, it was nice of them to stop by.

Spoons? Who needs spoons?

Harry felt right at home talking with the adults.

One watering can, just isn't enough.

It wouldn't be an outside picture post without a picture of Harry and his red car.

The first firework.

Harry looks quite concerned, Nina was clapping the whole time.

I wanted to show this picture, not because of the the fireworks, but if you look at the bottom right, the tree is 100% gone now. Papa brought over a stump grinder, and there is now, nothing left.

Sparklers. A Big deal. Harry remembered, Nina didn't. They were a Hit!

Harry chose to do a 'statue of liberty' pose. Nina, well she enjoyed spinning.

Sparklers were a HIT...but I'm not sure if they were as much a hit as the pops. You know, the ones that you throw and they pop when they hit the ground. They got their shovels out to pop the ones that didn't work the first go around.

Hunting.

We headed out to see fireworks that night. I didn't know if we would make it, with the day being so long (foolish me, I let Harry & Nina stay up late the night before foolishly thinking they may sleep in for the late night the next day...which of course backfired, instead they woke up at 7, with little sleep, running in to wish daddy a happy birthday!). Fireworks began at 11pm. The kids loved it with Nina falling asleep in my lap halfway through the show. Andy took this picture, the orange color in the middle is Harry moving around.

Our view. We had a great spot. It was a short distance away. With young kids though, it was perfect! They were in their jammies. We parked right on the bluff, put out our blanket a few feet from where we parked. After they were done, we were home in about 5-10 minutes.

Yesterday. We had a mellow day. Nina still got up early, 7:30, but Harry slept until 10. We decided to lay low and have a fun outside day. Here they were filling up their watering cans so they could make the puddle below. There is a bit of a dip in the driveway by the front door. It collects water, which equals in kid language, a jumping area.

Andy took these pictures last night. The bee was cute, working hard to collect all he needed to make his honey. The second picture, below I liked with the plastic decorative bee in the distance.