Four for the Fourth

Usually, Bryan's family is here for the Fourth of July and we celebrate in style with a cookout, swimming, a neighborhood parade and fireworks (Which come to find out Lilly thinks is all for Ed's birthday.  Not sure how she came up with that, but somehow his status as a soldier along with the American holiday combined in her mind to make the entire affair about him).  But, this year, since we have planned a family vacation (that I'm sure you will read about in a couple of weeks) we all decided to stay put for the Fourth.  It turned out to be kind of a dud anyway.  The fireworks were canceled due to the extremely dry weather and the excessive heat made it almost too hot to even swim.  But, the neighborhood parade went on as planned and Lilly rode her bike in it for the first time ever. 

Here comes the parade, and if you look close, you can see my family pulling up the rear.  Evidently there was a water stop along the way and my kids will never pass up a drink.  I think they get that from their dad...

 Finally, here they come.  Lilly and Bryan spent the morning decorating Lilly's bike and Jack's wagon for the festivities.  Lilly even picked out a hat for Bryan at the craft store.

 As you can clearly see, Nathan was thrilled to be a part of the parade.

  George and Georgie were the only ones able to keep up with the group, possibly because George was willing to body check small children who tried to get ahead of them.

 Jack was still enjoying his water stop even after the parade ended.

 Lilly ditched her helmet pretty quick, but I was able to get a picture of her Fourth of July outfit.

 After the parade Georgie stuck around to play in the water table for a little bit and then we went inside for lunch, naps and some AC.  We didn't do much all day, but Bryan and I were able to get a little bit of work done.
Later that night we had a good ole American meal of BLT's, cheese potatoes and corn on the cob. 

Please stayed tuned for two weeks from now for some more exciting pictures of our Alabama/Florida adventure.