Happy 4th of July!

We celebrated the 4th of July at home this year. A pretty simple day, but it turned out to be so much fun! (Well, except for the part when poor Lexi got her first bee sting!)

Even though we weren't going anywhere, we still dressed up in patriotic red, white, and blue. I sent the kiddos outside to play with little American flags... and then, like an overzealous paparazzi mom, I stalked them with the camera. In the afternoon, the kids christened our big green pool. (For the blog reading faithful, you may note that the "big green pool" is the 2009 version of last year's "big blue pool.")

It was at about this point when Lexi stepped on a bee. Here, we insert about 20 minutes of tears into our otherwise perfect day. After Scott and I did our best to snuggle and soothe her, it seems all it took was a Nemo ice pack and a Care Bear bandaid on her big toe to make her feel better. But then we were back on track!

Scott BBQed steaks and hot dogs for dinner, so everyone was happy... especially Molly, who found a way to sample both. Then we all shared a big bowl of yummy cherries and waited for the sun to set. At the first hint of darkness, we broke out the sparklers... Oh, you should have seen their faces! Awestruck. Wide eyes, big grins. Then, it was finally upstairs to bed, where we discovered we could (sort of) see the fireworks show from a local college. And now, the whole gang is completely exhausted... and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for an extra hour of sleeping in tomorrow! :)

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Poor Big Toe! :(

A word of warning. Beware of standing near Lexi when she's waving a tiny flag. You might get popped in the eye. Dont' worry though, she'll apologize. But the really good news is.... she can help you out if you are suddenly in need of someone to randomly scratch your head. Yup. That's our Lexi ;)