We celebrated the Fourth of July all weekend long and had so much fun with family and good friends.
It all started with a parade and carnival in Nana and Pop's neighborhood on Saturday morning.
Gene took the boys and let me have a morning off.
It was hot, hot, hot but everyone had a blast!
This was one awesome parade with a marching band, fire trucks and police cars galore! After the parade, there were bouncy houses, tons of food and more fun to be had.
The boys' favorite part was picking up candy that was thrown by all the parade participants.
And the free cookies were a huge hit, as well.
The boys rode ponies too! They came home at lunchtime, hot, sweaty and happy.
On Sunday night, we invited some good friends over for a cookout in our backyard. We let the six kiddos eat at the kitchen table while the adults stood around in the kitchen! Typical!
Jaime and Katy brought TWO delicious red, white and blue desserts. Jaime sampled the jello mold he made for the kiddos and proclaimed it delicious! The kids agreed.
After eating, the boys got out their musical instruments to go along with Gene's infamous marches CD. Do you remember when Will first became obsessed with marches two years ago?
Despite the jam-packed morning, the boys decided that a trip to the Children's Museum was in order after quiet time. It was very crowded, even though it was late in the day, but the boys loved exploring a traveling exhibit called "Out on a Limb: Adventures in Nature and Art." 
This little tree house was a big hit with my guys. 
Peekaboo!
It even had a periscope!
I'm not sure where the art part of the exhibit came into play, but the boys didn't seem to care one way or the other. After their fill of playing in the indoor nature exhibit, we headed outside to cool down with some water play. 
And then we met Gene for dinner. The boys always ask for the lemon slices from our water glasses. Henry is such a goofball!
I love these crazy-busy summer days with my two sweet boys!
You teach a kid to read and write and he's eventually going to use that knowledge to ban his little brother from his room. I don't blame Will at all, though, since he kept building castles and Henry kept knocking them down. 
The only problem, of course, is that Will assumed that a) Henry could read his sign and b) Henry would abide by his rule! At least Will was kind enough to help Henry read the words. 
Katy and Jaime are my best boot camp buddies ever! We were crazy enough to meet at our regular early morning time on Monday morning too, even though I am pretty sure none of us got to bed early enough on Sunday night! 
Candice and Andy's four kids plus our two = children everywhere! 
Henry was tired after all the running and playing! 
Six kids = one wobbly pyramid! 
These six kids laughed and laughed and had such a good time together!
And of course we loved hanging out with Candice and Andy too! It's so fun to be neighbors again.
We spent Monday with Nana and Pop and Mike, Jess, Mary and baby Michael. The little ones cooled off outside in the slip 'n slide!
Gene flung the boys down the slip 'n slide over and over and over again.
They loved it!
Mary preferred sitting in the little bucket.
We had such a fun weekend celebrating America's independence over and over again! 
Weezie has a pretty good life. The boys adore her and give her lots of "love." She is extremely patient with them and lets them chase her all around. She thinks the little house in the backyard is hers. She sleeps on the windowsills and stalks birds from inside. Weezie is a good lizard hunter but she has zero success with birds (thank goodness!).
Weezie spent ALL of yesterday outside, just napping in the grass under the roses. She skipped lunch, so she probably found some supplemental food in the backyard (poor lizards!). 
While Weezie was napping, we made her brownies! Okay, the brownies weren't really for Weezie. 
The boys finally convinced Weezie to come inside after dinner. We sang "Happy Birthday" to her and gave her special treats (a leftover Swedish meatball and some milk) while the rest of us ate the brownies. 
Yummy brownies! 
Happy 10th birthday, Weezie!