4th of July Week Extravaganza!

Seriously, y'all. I LOVE 4th of July.  It's got to be my favorite holiday.  No pretense. No emotional traditions. No gift exchanges.  Just good old fashion American fun.   Sigh.  I am already excited for next year.

Evie had the week off from summer school/camps.  The first part of the week was roasty-toasty outside.  We had the A/C guy come tune up our system - YAY!  But we didn't have too much else planned. Or so I thought.  At about 5:00 the garage door opened (an hour and a half early!).  Eric walked in announcing "SURPRISE DATE NIGHT!"  It was tough to leave these cutie pies behind, but I got over it real fast. Ha!

The babysitter arrived at 5:30 and we took off for Main Event.  A new bowling / laser tag / billiards / arcade place.  We took advantage of their Monday $9.99 pass.  After kicking my butt in bowling Eric talked me into playing laser tag.  It was my very first time. I was seriously nervous but afterwords I kind of got addicted. I'm already plotting my return.  We played pool but by then my 2-beer buzz kicked in and I really couldn't focus.  Three cheers for the post-baby lightweight.

Eric had a lighter week at work with lots of folks traveling so on Tuesday we drove downtown.  Eric took the girls around to meet his co-workers and then we went out to lunch.  Evie's been super cooperative this week, can you tell?

Eric talked me into (okay, didn't take too much convincing) trying the famous cupcakes they sell near his office.  Something about snickerdoodle cheesecake.  Yeah. They were good.  Though I'm not sure they were worth pushing a double stroller through downtown during lunch rush.

 On Wednesday I loaded the girls into my parents car and drove up to the Cabin with them.  My little twin cousins were in town from Texas.  They're going into 5th grade next year.  Hope and Will took Evie under their wing and played with her for HOURS.  I hardly saw her.  Maggie was a champ just chilling out snuggling with everyone.

Thursday we just snuggled up around the house.

And Friday the Forth of July fun was abounding!  Eric and his sister Leeann ran the Peachtree Road Race with 60,000 of their closest friends!

After the race our little family went for our traditional Waffle House brunch and goofy photos.

 

Nailed it.

We took naps before heading to Eric's parent's condo for dinner and fireworks.  This was plan B.  We were going to have a party at our house because we can see the local fireworks show from our yard....but they temporarily moved the show too far away! Boo! 

The view from Eric's parent's can't be beat.

These pictures were taken with HDR mode on my phone. I cannot wait for this feature on my new camera!

We enjoyed a beautiful, breezy, unseasonably cool evening from the 28th floor.  We let Evie stay up to watch the Fireworks.  It was the clearest 4th we've had up at the condo.  We could easily see 30 fireworks shows at any given time.

On Saturday our nephew turned 1!  We celebrated with a party at his house.

Evie loved playing with all the other kids.  And has two skinned knees to show for it.  Maggie snuggled up with Grandpa and slept the whole time.

Luke lived up his first birthday to the fullest.  He was living large with that blue smash cake!

Whew.

And Sunday we took it mostly easy.  We caught up on house chores and Eric worked in the yard.

We finished out the weekend with lots of snuggles and homemade frozen yogurt pops!

And today everyone slept in an extra hour.  Thanks be to God.