Happy Birthday America!

This has been a week of sitting and waiting (not so) patiently for the phone call to head to Aurora, CO for the 0th birthday of my niece/nephew. I was SURE the baby would come two weeks ago. and last week. and two days ago. and yesterday. But, alas, this baby is waiting. He/she is due to enter the outside world today (his/her brother waited until his due date, too!). So will see.

In the mean time we celebrated the 237th birthday of our nation.

On the 3rd of July Brinley and I attended the annual Halbgewachs (yeah, that's their last name) Independence Party. It was SO MUCH FUN. They have a property near the river which also happens to be the perfect spot to watch the fireworks from. Brinley played in the giant sandbox, on the giant tree swing, in the giant tree house, on the trampoline (yes, apparently everything is bigger in the country) with all of her little friends while Mommy chatted away with the adults and munched on lots of sweet yumminess. Then we sang songs, prayed, and walked down the country road to the river. It was a fantastic night with fantastic friends. It doesn't get much better than that

Yesterday was Independence Day! Daddy stayed home from work and we played all morning, Mommy and Daddy worked on the boat all afternoon and then the kids swam in their pool in the evening. Somehow, Titus ended up naked and Brinley ended up with her clothing on in the pool....

We also set up a tent in the living room so Brinley could have a "Camp-In".

...and ran across a shy little lion

Then came the fun part-- lighting things on fire!!

Ti's first sparkler experience

"I do it myself, Daddy!"
"Not yet, buddy. Not yet."

She said jammies and slippers are the best things to wear
when lighting sparklers

Roger got tired of lighting each "snake".... so he just piled them up and lit them all together.

Then Ti went to sleep for the night and we climbed up onto the roof (with chips and drinks) and enjoyed our neighborhood fireworks display. It was quite impressive!

Then came the 5th of July (today) and dirt balls. Yes, Brinley decided she needed to make lots of dirt balls to throw into the grass for the birds (??)

The face I got when I told her that birds don't eat dirt, just worms.

Goofy girl.

...while Titus enjoyed their new sandbox (thanks Grandma and Grandpa!)

I couldn't love this kid any more than I already do. Seriously.