A very HAPPY 4th of July!

After a wonderful morning at church, we all eagerly donned our Old Navy flag shirts and prepared for our celebration that night. Mom showed Callie the proofs of Kristen & Chris' wedding pictures - and Callie enjoyed every second of them!

We drove just down the street to a church that was launching their own fireworks display. We'd been told that they do a great job, and so we decided to give it a try this year. You can't get much more convenient than 5 minutes down the road!

The girls :)

Josiah & Jacob playing rallyball - and trying not to hit the ball so hard that it would hit other people trying to hang out and wait...

Katy, Mom, and Kristen

We're missing Kelli & Kim in this picture! :(

The whole family! As I was gathering us all up for this picture, I realized that Jacob was wearing the WRONG flag shirt! We had gone swimming that afternoon, and when we got home, I told everyone to put their flag shirts back on. Jacob put on his flag shirt from LAST year. Oh well - it's still a flag shirt I suppose!

Callie & Tutu playing Velcro Ball (I'm sure there's a real name, but I don't know it).

The church had also set up these huge tarps on their hills and had created this HUGE makeshift waterslide. HUGE hit with the kids - next year I'll bring their bathing suits...but I let them go down in their shorts this year...After all, I knew we'd be home in 5 minutes after the fireworks were over!

Caleb was just watching it all - taking it all in! It was WAY past his bedtime, but I guess he didn't want to miss anything either!

Some friends from church found us and joined our party set-up :)

And another family joined us too! Both of these families live right near our neighborhood so it was fun having us all meet up and watch the fireworks together!

The popcorn came out and we were ready for it to begin!

Caleb watched the whole thing - even as tired as he was! Never jumped at the noise, never tried to turn around, never cried out. Just watched it all. Cracked me up.

And it was an AMAZING fireworks display. Seriously I'd do it again every year. The best!

See? Can't take his eyes off!

Callie loved them....but did NOT care for the noise....

After the fireworks were over, they had a stocked ice cream freezer that everyone could come choose their ice cream bar. Caleb finally fell asleep as we were waiting in line to choose our treats.

3 happy kids - each chose a different treat! Callie chose a spongebob ice cream bar, Josiah got a push-up (LOVE those), and Jacob chose an ice cream sandwich...which was melting very quickly at this point! :)