4th of July!

I'm trying to get caught up on my blog....can you tell? Our 4th of July weekend was busy/full weekend but we had a great time.  On Saturday our "old" friends Craig & Fawn were in town. I call them "old" because Kevin & Craig have been friends since they were 18 years old and freshmen in college.  Fawn & I had our first children within a month apart and travelled the journey of motherhood together. A couple years ago they moved away from our city.  It's terrible to say but I had not seen Fawn, Carina & Callen since their move. Kevin and Craig meet up once or twice a year to fish but that is all. We were thrilled when they called to let us know they were going to be in town over the 4th of July weekend!  We had them over for a quick visit, brunch, and to get the kiddos together.

Zachary, Carina, & Callen loved playing together.  At one point in the morning the kiddos asked to watch a movie. Our dvd player in the living room is broke so I set them up in our bedroom.  It was hilarious because as I was setting them up they crawled under the covers and got cozy. 

After brunch we went up to Kevin's office for a tour.  The bright sun was in the kids eyes....it was BRIGHT!

After our visit with Craig, Fawn, and kiddos we headed to Miss Charley's 5th Birthday party. Charley had a Wizard of Oz party that had everything from a pinata to a live magician. Zachary could not contain himself and thought it was HILARIOUS! Which it truly was.

The party guest with Martie the Magician &  Rabbit Charlie

Zachary was selected to come up front to do a trick. He was so excited!

 Zachary doing a magic trick....crack me up!

Charley's adorable cake

 Zachary's a ladies man...

 Watch out....I purposefully requested that Z be at the end of the line for the pinata. It was a good thing he was because he wacked it open. 

 After the party we stuck around for an evening of fireworks. We have made this an annual tradition since the kiddos were first born.  It's hard to believe that they are 5 (or almost 5 for Z) and that both of our families will be having a new baby soon.  So much fun!

On Monday the 4th we went to a little impromtu get together at Betsy & Andy's.  It's not the 4th of July if I don't make some patriotic snacks. Here's the chocolate covered strawberries I made and took to the party.

And Kevin's personal favorite a fruit pizza. I've been making this on the 4th of July since Kevin and I started dating.  It's kind-of and expected treat on the 4th.

Zachary and Miss A were the only kiddos at the party (Miss M was sleeping) and they had the best time together.  Here they are in the new hammock swing.

Of course Kevin had to try it out too.

Betsy picked up some lantern fireworks. I guess they are the "IN" thing since the movie Tangled came out.  They were super neat and everyone was impressed.  Here's Betsy unfolding the first one.

The group getting ready to release the lanterns in the sky.....

Kev & Zachary's lantern was a little faulty but it eventually it went up in the sky.

And they are off...it was a beautiful scene!

I don't think we could have packed anything else into our 4th of July weekend.  We did have a blast though and made a lot of memories!  It's one of my favorite holidays!