Fourth of July

We celebrated Independence Day all day long!  First, it was off to the Gateway, to run through the fountains with my siblings and parents.  Then to the Clark Planetarium to watch a movie and eat more popcorn than any of us needed to eat.  Then to Sampan's to eat lunch with my grandparents and family.  Not that the kids (or Greg and I) were hungry after all the popcorn!  Then we headed out to meet up with Greg's family, where we had a BBQ and hung out and played for the next several hours.  The girls drew with sidewalk chalk while Daddy fixed Aunt Andrea's brakes, and Isaac whined he didn't get to play with Dad's tools.  As it was getting closer to nightfall, we headed over to Murray Park, to meet up with my family to watch the fireworks.  The kids did so great all day -- there were a few meltdowns, but amazingly all three functioned on a lack of sleep with surprising ease.  They all enjoyed the firework show, almost as much as the glow sticks Uncle David brought!

The girls played in the fountains until they were too cold to play anymore!

After the water fountains, we changed the girls into cute, matching Fourth of July dresses -- which I never got a good picture of them in!  The bottom corner picture was one of everyone's favorites of Ellie mid-meltdown.  Fortunately such meltdowns were miraculously few and far between.

Annie showing off a mouth full of Circus Animal Cookies, Ellie being sad, then happy (about three seconds apart), and my Mom pouting 'cause she had the trail mix taken away after being caught (again) fishing out the M&Ms.  Bad Grandma!  :-)

The glow sticks were a hit!  A very excited David and Ellie -- I don't know if there were two people there more excited about the fireworks (and glow sticks!) than these two!  Grandma and Annie showing off their glow stick jewelry.  On the bottom, it's the family (Grandma, Star, Annie, Talina, Ellie, Isaac and David) 'chained down' by a glow stick creation of their own making.

Dang, Isaac could not be any cuter, right?!  Then Grandma showing Annie something.  I don't know what, I was taking pictures, not listening to conversations.  Greg and Isaac getting into the glow stick action.  Star showing off her mad juggling skills :-)

These are my favorites.  These are all of Isaac watching fireworks for the very first time.  Last year, at this time, we watched fireworks at the same location while I was overdue, anxiously awaiting this one's arrival.  This year I have this near-toddler who sat there fascinated by the loud sounds and bright lights, and who would whisper, "Boo, boo" with me as I'd exclaim, "Boom!  Boom!" when the fireworks went off.  He only made it half way through the show though -- then he had his own personal glow stick rave, where he frantically and happily waved glow sticks around, smacking whomever was in his way.  Even fireworks can't compare with that.