4th of July 2020

After only being back from our trip for a day, it was already the 4th of July. This summer is flying! It was fun to have it on a Saturday this year.

My mom bought the kids this little pool and water toys for entertainment at her house and they loved having it to play in! Liam was all about the squirt gun. Took me straight back to when he was two and my mom stayed with him while Lyla was born. She brought him this tiny squirt gun she had to fill every 5 seconds but it was his favorite thing ever!

What is summer without a water balloon fight?! p.s. If you haven't tried the self seal, fill 100 water balloons in a minute package you are missing out! Whoever invented that is a genius who has to be making millions right now. I remember 100 water balloons back in my day would cause your fingers to bleed form having to tie those suckers one after another.

Liam absolutely pummeled Lyla at every chance he got and my mom and I were in a fit of laughter watching it all go down. Every time Lyla would say "ow" with the most serious yet joking face and then keep chasing him, throwing her balloons along the way, each one missing and crashing to the ground. 

I can almost HEAR him laughing through this picture. The most authentic giggle I could have captured. 

When the balloons were running low they both just dove right in to the cooler. Somehow it turned on me and I was dripping wet from being hit a few times while trying to take their picture. Stinkers! haha

Their favorite one ... the "baby" water balloon. They took turns carrying that thing around the whole day.

In the past two years I've hosted a neighborhood bike parade but this year we joined my mom's instead. There were a handful of kids who did it too but not many. This was Lyla's first year riding a bike in one! She was SO excited to decorate it. Liam sadly wanted nothing to do with decorating his and I had to honor that choice. He said his bike already had red which is a "4th of July color, mom". Fair enough.

Getting ready to race to the starting line!

By the time Lyla rode to the starting line, she was already tired and made Nic carry her bike the rest of the way so she could walk the parade. haha After the first loop they were given the opportunity to ride an available wagon instead and they took the offer! Sita pulled them along for the second loop.

I taped red, white, and blue "hair" on the back of Lyla's helmet. 

Parade cuties!

My mom was handing out candy at the end of the parade and gave them a bunch.

Me and my girl, taking a break to eat candy!

This festive culinary masterpiece was my contribution to the bbq! My mom made all the hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, and watermelon. Thanks for dinner, Mommasita! Then we had a flag fruit pizza for dessert.

Our kids were still exhausted from our trip and trying to catch up on sleep so we made an early night of it ... starting with pop-its! Lyla LOVED these this year but didn't quite have the arm strength to crack them against the street so I showed her you can drop one and jump on it to get them to pop. She was a big big fan! I have the cutest videos of her jumping away! 

Sparkler safety 101! The wind was really strong so these were tough to light. I think we only got through 2 of our 5 boxes of sparklers. Liam did 90% of them in one go! haha 

I know this picture will be one of those I'll see one day and it will instantly take me back to this moment. They were so sweet, sitting together and watching Nic light the fountains in the street. 

Liam was on "cool down duty" with his squirt gun. He was pretty proud of this job! haha

Lyla got jealous and started squirting the bushes in my mom's yard. She'd squeal and run for her chair every time a firework went off. Her expression was the cutest but it ended very unfortunately with a big old face plant on a metal chair and a swollen cut up lip to prove it.

This was pre-lip catastrophe. She is so dang beautiful ... look at those baby blues!

We went home promptly at 7 with really fussy kids and were in bed ourselves by 9:30, completely missing the big fireworks but so exhausted. I take that back, I caught one out our bathroom window while I was brushing my teeth. haha Some years are just like that though, especially as a parent. It was still a great 4th of July! 

Happy Independence Day!