Happy 4th of July!

This weekend was full of fun.  It has been awhile since we have had a big chunk of full-on family time and it was great being able to spend so much time with each other.  Saturday, we went to the annual 4th of July parade in our neighborhood (I think it may be the 45th annual or something like that...some of the old folks that live in our neighborhood have attended every single one of them!  Love that!).  We met the Brownlow's and their daughter, Libbie, and dogs and joined in the parade.  My mom made these adorable outfits for my girls and it is funny because Mia (of course) wanted a dress and Chloe did not want a dress (see the last posting about Spencer seeing her underpants at school), so my mom made a top for her to wear with shorts and Quinnlan also got a dress...Mandy monogrammed their names on them and they are so sweet!

We marched in the old-school parade complete with the bikes and wagons and dogs and my friend, Blake, carrying the boombox playing the patriotic music.  It was great.  I love our neighborhood~

After the parade they had blocked off the street for games.  They had relays with vaseline and cotton balls on the noses of the kids and relays to sit and pop the water balloons among others.  Chloe had her first lesson in never quitting the team.  When Mia and Chloe had their turn to pop the water balloon, their little 35lb. bodies were too light to pop them!  Maybe I should have fed them more breakfast???  So, with our help/weight lifting them up and smashing them down on the balloon, they finally popped, but this did put their team a little behind (excuse the pun...haha).  Chloe comes to us and says she doesn't want to finish the relay...oh no, honey, you don't quit the team in the middle of the game!  It was a little bit of a struggle, but we got through to her and she went on to sit on the last balloon (with our help again) and finished with her team.  Lesson learned...

Mia FINALLY popped the balloon

I dropped Kevin and the girls off at the pool and took Quinnlan home to nap and then we joined them after lunch.  Quinn has a new "circus trick".  She is all about saying "hi" and waving her hand...as her completely unbiased mom, I think it is so cute.  Hence, the video I am attaching:

The Hickey's joined us at the pool with their girls, Megan and Allison.  The pool was packed and Chloe and Mia both jumped off the diving board into the deep end for the first time...big girls!  More video:

Chloe

Mia 

We came home and everyone (including us) crashed, which was perfect because we had big plans for fireworks that night!  The Hickey's came over to grill out and then we headed to downtown Decatur for their fireworks show.  We set up camp right next to the courthouse across from Brickstore Pub and when the fireworks began, we realized we could not see anything because of a big giant tree that was in the way!  It was pretty hilarious seeing everyone around us scramble to pack up their things to move to a better spot.  We should have looked for all the old folks.  They were all set up with their lawn chairs in the prime spots behind the courthouse near the gazebo.  They know where to go...note to self...

Mia stood with her hands over her ears the entire time asking when we could go home and Chloe and Quinnie loved the show.  I was worried it might be too scary or loud for the baby, but she loved it.  She kept saying, "ohhh...ohhhh".  Sweet pea.  

Fun times...