Happy 4th!

We've had such a lovely, happy 4th of July, I feel like I'm basking in its afterglow.

It started with the whole family pulling together to really make things nice for our BBQ, especially helpful given that this morning Thing 1 came into our bedroom and said, "It's raining. What are we going to do about the BBQ?" Raining? Move it inside! Yep, we got to break in our awesome table that seats 12 comfortably (we had 14, but 2, Thing 2 and his friend, happily sat at a cute, little table on the side)!

So with Mark and Thing 2 putting things together, cleaning up, and cooking and with me and Thing 1 slicing and dicing and mixing, we got a beautiful spread put out--Barbecued Shrimp, Afghani Chicken Kabobs, hot dogs, chips and salsa, pasta salad, and seafood rice. Our guests (friends from our ward and our homeschool group) brought a big bowl of delicious cut watermelon, home-baked wheat baguettes, and a delicious green salad with homemade olive dressing and feta cheese. What a spread!!

We spread out our blue outside tablecloth with white stars (very 4th of July) inside on our kitchen table and ate in the dining room. It was great! Everyone loved the food and had a great time. It was overcast all day but the kids got to play outside and inside and we all enjoyed sitting around to music, relaxing, and talking. We enjoyed our afternoon with everyone.

After everyone left, we cleaned up like crazy, again with everyone happily pitching in. It was wonderful--we have so much fun with this. Really! Thing 2 and I stood at the sink together and did dishes and Thing 2 and Mark dusted and we all helped vacuum and sweep. We like to clean to music and at one point, loud and clear, "Unforgettable" by Nat King Cole came on. Mark was upstairs and I was doing dishes, but we both dropped what we were doing (that's our song) and found each other and danced in the living room. Awwwww. :)

We played with sparklers and snap pops and snake fireworks in the backyard. We enjoyed some ice cream in our clean sparkly kitchen. And we got ready for bed, figuring it was too rainy and cloudy for fireworks. And then we heard them! I looked out the kids' bedroom window and we could see them! I ran downstairs and onto the front porch of our clinic and you could see them quite well. This is our first 4th of July in our farmhouse and we're so excited that we can see the fireworks right from our front porch without having to fight crowds! So we all sat together snuggling on our clinic porch and watched fireworks in our jammies. Does it get better than this?!

A quick bedtime story and a mini-lesson on the Declaration of Independence from our cool "Great Documents" book where you can actually see the documents (I love bargain tables at the bookstore!) and then the kids fell asleep quickly, worn out from a day of fun. We followed suit within a couple of hours, but not before watching some of the Boston Pops 4th of July special on TV. I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the people in Boston reveling and having fun at the live show. They're crazy and I love that I grew up there and I love how people from there aren't afraid to show a lot of personality.

So, happy 4th, everyone! Hope it was great!