Fourth of July

For the fourth this year we headed to an early morning shendig at a friend's and watched the parade right down the street from them.  This seriously is my favorite holiday.  I love that it's in the middle of summer.  I love all the red, white, and blue.  I love all the cookouts and kids playing and fireworks and excitement in the air.  And Upper Arlington does the 4th of July BIG!  We're in a good place for this to be a favorite holiday!

We headed to the fireworks as a family of four this year, although Maya and I headed out a tad early.  She was tired and they were loud.  Bless her little heart.

My little fam.

Because...tree swings!

That smile!

My little poser!

We happened to be sitting right near one of Kate's
best friends, Reagan!

Lovelies!

Red, white, and cute for sure!

Proud to be an American!

Parade goers!

Mimi and Papaw met us down at the parade and
then had lunch with us!

Kate and Reagan.  BFF!

That cute, curious face!

Happy 4th, y'all.

Red, White & Blue

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!

All 3.5 of us spent our holiday today down at the local parade that we attended last year and the year before that and then went to a local block party to enjoy fun, food, and friends!  We asked Kate if she wanted to go to the fireworks but she declined politely and said they were too loud for her.  Maybe next year...

On a side note, since Kate (and Jack) were born on Halloween I was kind of hoping that little sister would make her debut a tad early and be born on July 4th!  I mean, we might as well stay consistent and keep our kiddos (and pets) on major holidays, right?!  Little sis, however, has decided that she needs a bit more cookin' and has stayed in the womb!

Red, white & blue decor!  These colors just fit perfectly together!

I bought a red vase and a blue vase and filled
them with white flowers and a little flag
for each of the girls' rooms.

This little beauty has my heart!

And here we see the latest and greatest
"smile"!

Once again, the pre-parade bomb pop delivered!

They are just so good!

So much red, white, and blue in this photo!

I think the parade's a coming!

See Mommy?!

Just enjoying the parade with my girl!

At one point, Kate decided the parade wasn't
risque enough so she took her top off.  Brian
was not so pleased by this move and when I asked
her why she wanted her top off she said it was
too hot.  Oh, to be two and a half again!

Kate loved this yellow submarine float!

And the horses!
Forgive me but I stopped taking parade photos after this...

Kate was drawn to this dollhouse the entire time
we were at the block party!

Note to self: this would be a perfect Christmas
gift!

I mean, enthralled!

Sitting to the side watching the egg toss!

I mean, can you get any cuter?!  Seriously.
I have, like, 27 photos like this but Kate was so
interested in watching Daddy participate in the
egg toss that I didn't get one head on with a smile.
#sheisstilladorable

So cute!

We even got to enjoy a red, white, and blue
cupcake!

Headed over to check out the fire truck that
stopped by.

How cool is this?!

She even got to test out the driver's seat!

This fourth of July was particularly fun for me.  I really love this holiday!  I love the red, white, and blue decor, I love that it is summer, I love that this holiday has so many traditions, I love fireworks, I love the cookouts.  I'm not sure if I'm giddy and excited about the impending arrival of our newest baby girl or if there is just something in the air but this fourth of July just made me happy!  Here's to many, many more like this!

Braids & Crew

Today I am working from home while Kate celebrates the fourth of July holiday with her class.  Brian typically gets her ready in the morning, including doing her hair, so since I was home and had the opportunity to experiment, we got a bit creative and went with two french braids!

I can't wait to do her hair more!

She didn't care to turn around for me to get a picture from the front but she said she had two braids, "Like Anna."  Clearly, Frozen runs deep in our house!

She also insisted on bringing her crew with her on the way to school.

From left to right we have: Sofia, Lucky, and Charlie.

She was pretty adamant that I only take a picture of her guys.  I noted this when I asked her to smile and she clearly said, "Only my guys."  Don't tell her I still included her in the first couple.  She's just too stinkin' cute not too, ok?!

And for the record, I did take several pictures of "just her guys" to show her.

Hand Print Flag

With the fourth of July looming on the horizon, I thought it would be a good idea to start talking about our flag with Kate.  We've talked about the colors in our flag - red, white, and blue - and we've looked at what colors the stripes are and what color the stars are.  We've also talked about how many stars on on the flag and what the represent - the 50 states!

To really hit this little learning lesson home, I thought it would be a good idea to create our own flag, so over the last couple nights we embarked on a little hand print flag project!  This little momento will be something that we will keep forever and display proudly each and every fourth of July.  Plus, it was super easy and fun for all of us.

I took a blank canvas and used masking tape to tape off the
areas where we did NOT want the red paint.

Then I let Kate do her thang!

I put the paint on the canvas and she went to town.

Girlfriend gets in a ZONE when she is painting!

Painting the roses canvas red!

Love that little tush!  Even though we are
wearing a smock, this is how we roll!

We explored with the paint a tad bit after we painted with the red
because painting is just too fun to only use one color!

I let the paint dry overnight and then peeled the tape off.

Then I covered the areas already painted with old
construction paper and left the area that we would
be painting blue open.

And, once again, I let Kate do her thing!

I mean, she's a pro by now with the amount of painting we do!

Once the blue was dry, I painted her hand and we stamped it
right where the stars would go!

And when it was 100% dry, we put it up for decoration!

I love this!  We will certainly be making another one of these for Little Sister at some point!  And, like I said, we will keep it forever and display it proudly each and every fourth of July!

Plus, it was a great learning experience and Kate has since pointed out the flags to me that she sees around the neighborhood or on signs, etc.  It is incredible to see our little lady so engaged and learning and then using her new skills outside of the activity we were doing!  She continues to amaze me!

May The Fourth Be With You

We spent our fourth of July weekend here in Ohio!  We attended the local parade that we went to last year and, once again, kept it pretty low key!  Kate enjoyed the parade a lot more this year!  I tried to take photos of everything that she loved!  (All of which you will find below!)

We debated keeping Kate up extra late to see the fireworks this year. When we returned from the parade though we were doing a bit of yard work when some neighbors started setting some fireworks off.  Kate ran right over to me when she heard the BOOM from those fireworks, with eyes SO WIDE, said, "up please", buried her head in the nook of my neck, clung on tighter than I've ever felt her hang on, and begged me to go inside.

For the rest of the afternoon/evening and even into the next day she did not want to even go outside.

Needless to say, we decided to hold off on the fireworks again this year!  Brian and I did sneak out back for the second year in a row and caught a few of the real high fireworks while we watched Kate curl up in a ball on the monitor and put her blanket over her head.  Perhaps we'll hold off on fireworks next year too...

Happy 4th!

Ready for the parade!

Walking to our spot!

Claiming said spot!

Getting into the spirit!

Two hands, two flags!  Sounds right to me!

I heart this photo!

Sitting with Daddy while waiting for the parade to start.

Kate *loved* the bomb pop!

She also loved this outer space float!

And the horses!

And the big truck!

And this guy!

And these little cars!

And the little golden bear!

And the big golden bear!

And the gummy frogs we snacked on as a treat when we got home!