4th of July

It's been a month since I've written a blog post.  Yikes!  It's times like these, when I get so behind, that it's hard to start back up.  I have an enormous backlog (especially since we spent 2 weeks on an exciting vacation).  The only way to make progress is to start somewhere, so here I go...

Fourth of July was on a Monday this year.  We had just returned from our long vacation and were grateful for an extra day off before Mark had to return to work.  I can't say it was a restful day, but it was a lot of fun.  

We started off at our ward's annual 4th of July Breakfast.  The Harp's joined us, possibly lured by (true) tales of french toast made from home baked cinnamon bread.  Yummo!  Katie said it did not disappoint.  

This is always one of my favorite activities of the year.  After breakfast there are a ton of simple, but fun activities for the kids.  The highlight is the bike parade. 

 

 One of our friends always brings his mini race car and the kids line up for a chance to take a lap around the parking lot.

Aubree spent a good chunk of time helping with the other Activity Days girls at a face painting station.  When she wasn't helping there, she was stealing babies from Katie or our friend Shelly.

Aubree and Coralee

 Mark pulled out a frisbee and soon had a group of little boys joining in the game.

 Thane is getting pretty good at his catching techniques.

Graham particularly enjoyed the bubble station.  You'll notice in most of these pictures everyone is wearing jackets.  It was a cool morning and rain threatened all day.  I kept remembering how boiling hot it was last year on the 4th when I was enormously pregnant.  I'll take 60 degrees over 100 degrees any day!

The only downside of the morning is that Nellie had woken up covered in a rash.  I expected it was likely a reaction to the antibiotic she was taking, but since I'd never had a kid have an antibiotic reaction previously, I wasn't sure how to respond.  Thankfully, I have very knowledgeable friends.  One of them, an Emergency Room nurse, reassured me all would be well, told me what to watch for, and sent me off to procure some children's Zyrtec.

After the breakfast, we caravanned with the Harps up to our Aunt Deanna's home for a family BBQ and picnic.  We made a pit stop on the way for medicine and side dishes.  I gave Nellie the medicine and thought, "perhaps the drowsy side effects will mean she actually gets in a nap today."

When will I ever learn? She took a short nap shortly after we arrived at Deanna's, but that was it for the day (and yes, down my shirt is her favorite place to put her hand when she's tired, and she was so exhausted I wasn't going to do anything that might interrupt her sleep).

As always, there were tons of people at the party, and lots of fun things to do.  My cousin Adam just got a new motorcycle.  The boys were fascinated!

My cousin Mandy recently began selling Lularoe clothing.  She wanted to get as many relatives as she could wearing Lularoe gear as she could to take a picture for her Facebook/Instragram group.  That meant a giant party in the dressing room.  Aubree  loved the leggings and shirt she got to wear.

The picture turned out quite well.  That's a LOT of Lularoe!

 

With Nellie not feeling great, and all of us still in recovery mode from our long vacation, we were home by 7 pm and immediately put all the kids in bed.  That means another 4th of July passes without watching fireworks.  Some day we will remedy that issue.  In the meantime, SLEEP!