Broad Stripes & Bright Stars

We had a great 4th of July! Here is a video of Harrison singing the Star Spangled Banner. There is a video on YouTube that he loves to watch that gives the history of the song and when & why it was written. It's basically just a 10-minute documentary of a man talking and I would be thrilled if I never have to watch it again. :) I'm most definitely not a history person so he didn't get that gene from me! Anyway, it emphasizes the importance of showing respect for our country and our national anthem and somehow Harrison interpreted that to mean that anytime we see a flag we have to stop and sing the entire song to show our pride for America. I certainly love his enthusiastic patriotism but I'm pretty sure that song is going to be stuck in my head forever!

We started the morning off by walking in the Teddy Bear Parade. It's a cute little parade that our city puts on where kids decorate their wagons/bikes/strollers and then walk a couple of blocks to a fun festival at our downtown park. The kids (and most definitely not me; I'm not competitive at all) were excited because they won 2nd place in the contest this year!

Leave it to the 3-year old boy to ruin the family picture :)

These are my people

getting ready to start the parade

some of our competition friends

You better believe he was singing the Star Spangled Banner ;)

this kid was excited about the petting zoo

And Harper shocked us by saying she wanted to go in too. She refused to get down and looks pretty terrified, but hey! Baby steps.

She even braved her first pony ride! I was so proud of her.

We ended our fun with free hot dogs and cotton candy

Later on we had a few friends and family over for a BBQ. I feel so blessed to have a good group of mutual friends. Not only do I have great girlfriends but our hubbies are all friends as well. It's been a lot of fun to see all our kids grow up together over the last few years.

some backyard fun

Trina & Cullen

The boys digging into some firecracker popper thingies (technical definition)

Her first firecracker

Rachel, Katie, & Stacie

Mom & Tim came over too

The babies. Cullen & Scarlett Anne

I didn't get a picture of all the yummy food before it was devoured but here is a patriotic cheesecake I made.

This picture makes me laugh. The girls were going "shopping". Abigail kept wearing her headband over her eyes like star trek glasses and Hollyn was stirring up some girlfriend drama. Haha!

After dinner the boys all climbed up to the top of the play set and watched the fireworks in the distance. It was probably 11 by the time everybody left and midnight before my kids actually fell asleep yet somehow the meltdowns were somewhat minimal between all 10 kids. :) It really was such a great day full of memories made.