Fourth of July

What a festive 4th of July we have enjoyed! Friday we went to Conner Prairie for their celebration.

Saturday we went to the Brownsburg parade in the morning and met these adorable quadruplets, whom we happened to sit next to. Check out the 4 blondies sitting next to the 4 brown haired kids. Isn't it cute?! (Although Rachel does look more brown than blonde in this picture.)

Laura finally decided just to skip the parade and take a nap:

The parade was great and between it, and the parade the kids went to on Monday, we have a TON of candy.
After the parade we had an open house to attend and then we headed to some friends for an evening BBQ.
Our friends made grilled flatbread for the appetizer. It was amazing! I can't wait to try grilled pizza. It doesn't look hard at all.

Christine, as always, cooked terrific food on the grill: two flavors of ribs, chicken, and the flat bread.
Unlike the last two years of cold and rainy weather, the weekend was gorgeous! I spent most of the evening trying to keep poor Laura happy -- all she wanted was her own bed.

Here's Emily, enjoying her favorite holiday. Incidentally, Emily is off to Arizona for two months to do an occupational therapy internship. So far she is loving it. We all will miss her!!

The boys got haircuts in time for the celebrations.

Emily made a sand castle cake for the BBQ to celebrate our friend's birthday.

Jimmy isn't looking very pleased in this photo, but we all enjoyed the cake, including Jimmy.

Laura did have a few minutes of happy smiles:

Sunday we grilled hamburgers after church and then on Monday Michael took the kids to another parade while I did my homeschool planning.

And then we joined friends in the evening for yet another cookout with amazing food. It was a full and fun weekend.