The 4th of July

This is Jackson's favorite holiday of the year.  He looks forward to July 4 for months on end!  He began telling Brianna a long time ago that she simply HAD to get off of work that day for certain.  She obliged and he was in hog heaven.   :)

July 4 is also my sister's birthday so we always have a big celebration around here.  This year Kerry and his entire family were able to be in town to celebrate with us, which made it extra special.  We were also joined by the M. family and the B. family.  A truly perfect evening of fun and fellowship with wonderful folks.  

In the afternoon the kids all went to the pond to enjoy the pedal boat.  We realized we have been so busy this summer that we had never even gotten the boat out of the storage barn!!  Marvin took care of that, though, bringing it down to the pond with the tractor.  Then it was up to Jackson and Stephen to do the grunt work of actually getting it ON the pond.  (Thanks to Shonda for taking all the pond photos for me!!!)

Hannah, Jonathan and Rachel

Bringing the boat down to the pond.

Now Stephen and Jackson just have to get it TO the pond.   :)

People kept having to moving from back to front to redistribute the weight...

Hannah moved to front middle leaving Jonathan to have the back to himself.   :)

Tara, Hannah and Cody

Tara, Jenni, Alaina and Cody

It was hot, but pretty, and everyone took their turn on the boat.  Even Jackson, to my great amazement!! He is so NOT a water guy (takes after his dear father on that one) and I could not believe that he willingly got on the boat with Brianna.  I think he is still a little bit traumatized, but he survived!  :)  Although he did tell me that when the back end of the boat was too heavy and they realized he would have to switch places with Rachel, he took the ungentlemanly route of making HER go on the outside to switch!!  :)  She understood.   :)

Jackson is in the boat... not too happy, but IN.

Brianna providing a comforting hand to hold.   :)

And now they need to switch places to re-distribute the weight...

Yup... made Rachel take the outside!   :D

Rachel, Brianna, Stephen and Jackson

Pedaling with their hands....   :)

Matthew was also fishing at the pond along with his Dad and Grandpa.

Matt, Matthew and Pierce

Then we gathered for a meal together.  It isn't hard to feed a bunch of folks when everyone chips in and brings dishes.  I must say we all work well together.  Dinner was tasty!

Kerry, Candace, Rachel, Anna, Matthew, Julie, Matt, Brianna, Jackson, Marvin, Pierce, Betty, Brenda, Alyssa, Stephen, Jeremy, Shonda, Mama, Daddy

Cody

Jonathan, Jackson, Brianna, Jenni, Susanna, Alaina

Susanna, Alaina, Tara, Jackson, Brianna

Arayna, Hannah, Megan and Melina

Brianna sang a song for us that always makes me cry.  She does a lovely job and the song just touches me.  You can hear part of it here and you can read the lyrics here.

Brianna just finished playing & singing for us...

After dinner the girls all started working on each others hair.  Even a couple boys got involved....?    :D

Anna, Hannah and Alyssa

Alaina and Jenni

Cody and Brianna....

A mini braid!!   :D

Ummmm.....   :)

Anna and Matthew slipped off to do a bit more fishing in the pond.

Anna, Susanna and Matthew

Susanna, Anna, Matt, Matthew and Jonathan

Then it was time for the rest to play Rollick!  This is still an all time family favorite game!  And the team of Candace, Megan, Melina, Arayna, Jenni and Hannah is still unstoppable!!  (and hilarious to watch!!)

Jenni, Melina, Megan, Candace, Arayna

The answer is.... Madonna.   :)

Susanna, Jackson, Alaina, Tara, Cody, Brianna

Tara, Susanna, Jackson, Alaina, Brianna, Cody

So, Candace walks up to Hannah and says, "you don't mind if I lift up your shirt, do you?"   :)   ha!!

But it was brilliant!  The answer is... Little Red Riding Hood!!   :)

Alyssa, Tara, Brianna and Susanna

Jackson and Cody - the guessers

Hannah, Arayna, Candace and Melina

Then the B. family had to leave to attend another function (we were SO glad they could join us for the first part of the evening!) and we gathered at the table again to celebrate Julie's birthday.

Happy Birthday dear Julie!!

Marvin showing Kerry and Candace some of his old horse training memorabilia.

By that time it was getting dark enough to start setting off fireworks.  (Jackson's favorite part!)  So we headed out to the front porch to enjoy the show.

The fireworks team - Stephen, Jonathan, Melina, Jackson, Brianna, Susanna and Rachel

Matt and Brenda

Candace and Daddy

Mama and Kerry

Hannah

Julie

Melina, Laura and Megan

The fireworks were fun to watch and all the 'kids' do a great job of being safe, which I surely appreciate.  We don't have any reckless folks around here.  I did feel sort of badly for Jackson, however.  He had been so excited about his 'grand finale' firework.  It was a HUGE box and promised LOTS of shots and excitement!  He usually gets a terrific 'finale firework' and we expected nothing less.  However, this one just did about 5 rounds of truly magnificent shots, then was over.  In the darkness we heard Jackson's voice say...   "WHAT???"   :D  Poor guy!  It really was a beautiful finale - it just didn't last as long as he anticipated.  Oh well.  There is always next year, right??   :)

We finished the evening by watching the city fireworks show (we can see it clearly from our front porch) as well as other fireworks across the horizon.  I love the peaceful feeling of sitting on my own porch enjoying the light shows all around the area.  Including our very own lightning bugs.   :)

to watch the city fireworks, Jackson and Brianna had the best view  - from the roof!

Hannah and Melina with sparklers

You can see an entire album of photos by clicking here.