Let Freedom Ring!

I'm not sure why so many townships in PA celebrate the 4th of July on random days other than the 4th, but ours chooses a Sunday around the 4th. This year was July 5.  The festivities started off with a local parade that Andrew's high school marching band participates in.  This was Andrew's first year marching since the kids don't march their rookie year and last year we were already in AZ visiting family.  I love parades and the girls are loving them too!

We dropped Andrew off at his meeting spot and then went to find a place to park and stake out our seats on the parade route.  It was again a scorching, muggy day.  We got settled and then George took Lily and Reagan to get some drinks at a nearby convenience store while Violet and I kept our place.

Slushies were on tap to help keep cool!  Violet shared with me and as you can see she was pretty happy about ours!

It seemed like it was taking forever for the parade to begin and Lily had had enough waiting in the heat.

Violet on the other hand was still excited and ready for the parade enjoying her popcorn and hot dog too. She was a regular all-American kid-- she just needed some apple pie and a baseball game!

Parade time!  Lots of firetrucks and police cars, bikes, motorcycles...and of course, the marching band!

After the parade was over, we ran home to grab our belongings and head off to Audrey's sweet 16th birthday party! She's one of the kindest, best kids I've ever known and we wouldn't have missed being there for her!  Happy 16th, Audrey!

Due to the parade and Andrew's obligations, we were a few hours late to the party and Audrey knew that, but we made sure we made it!  The kids were happy to swim for a little bit and Violet got in the pool for the first time this summer with no fear at all and loved it! She just needed reminding to keep her mouth closed so she didn't drink all the water. :)

Next up in our crazy day, was our great friends' annual 4th of Julyish picnic! We originally didn't think we were going to get to be there due to some other scheduling and we were really disappointed, but we rearranged a handful of things to make sure we could be there and I'm so glad we did!
It was another afternoon/evening with our framily that we welcomed after far too long before this weekend.

The Lilys weren't interested in eating or playing outside. They love to play in Charlie's room and this is usually where you can find them...with every.single.thing. out in the room.  Charlie had some friends that she doesn't get to see often, so she was running all over playing.

Outside there was trampoline jumping going on, a little mowing, a little sleeping...

The bigger kids found their own space to relax while Violet decided that Liam had the best idea.

We took another family picture right before we left since Reagan was with us this day which made our party of 6 complete.  Next stop: fireworks!  This was our only chance to see them this year together and it was important to me to get to do, so we hurried off after another fun, relaxing afternoon in order to get our space for fireworks in our township.

We made it with little traffic issue {which is a HUGE deal in Pittsburgh}, got settled, and waited for the fireworks to begin.
Lily wanted to run, so she ran around the big field where we were. Andrew had seen a few friends when we were walking in, so he went to find them and Reagan ran into her friend too, so they got to catch up a little.  Soon it was time for fireworks and the girls were excited! Violet managed to fall in the mud while she was running to "catch" the fireworks, so that was fun in the dark.  It was a very good and exhausting day.

Until next year!