Our 4th of July Weekend

What a weekend! It started off on Friday with the annual Kiddie Parade, and continued that evening with a potluck BBQ with friends at our house. It was so delicious- Veronica brought the most amazing ribs that I'm still thinking about and in addition to that barbeque-saucy goodness we had a ton of patriotic sweet treats, a few salads, and hot dogs for the kids. It was such a nice night, and so full of conversation and fun that I took just a handful of photos- and that's always the sign of a successful evening, don't you think? Once it got dark we loaded the kids up into strollers and wagons, gave them a ton of glow sticks and necklaces, and walked down the street to the park for fireworks. We had five blankets between all the families, and it was a great feeling to look around and see this whole new chapter of our life. Kids and holidays and other families that are our friends...it's a great thing.

The next morning was the big 4th of July parade downtown, and we headed over to Hank's Dad's to watch it like we do every year. I mentioned it on Instagram, but I realized that Hank's Grandpa, Dad, and Hank himself have all watched the parade every year from that very lawn, just like Henry and Charlie now do. Pretty neat, right? The parade lasted all morning and just as it was ending the rain started to finally come down, hard. I must have heard a million "don't rain on our parade" jokes that morning. ;) And then later that night I went out with my girlfriends and stayed out way too late for the first time since having Charlie. It was SO much fun though, laughing and talking the night away. It was a great end to a whirlwind weekend that had been tinged with some sadness too, as our community remembered the 19 firefighters we lost last year.

I hope you had a happy, happy 4th of July too, whatever you did! Can we also discuss for a second that because it's officially July, I can say that Charlie's birthday is NEXT month?! Insanity.

Here are some photos -