Happy 4th of Jully! (I know...I did it on purpose)

I love holidays, pretty much in general.  I love having a reason to decorate pretty and celebrate anything, but our family has never really made much of the 4th of July.  It's not that we don't love that day- we do, but the last 6 years, we have been so overwhelmed with babies and birthday parties the few days before that fireworks were really nothing to get excited about.  Most years, we have watched the shows all around us while swimming in my mom's pool.  It was fun, but now that my babies are starting to get older, I wanted to start making more of Independence Day, especially since the kids can get involved and help out!  (You'll never guess who made my sign!)

I spent the 3rd of July driving around Tulsa.

It.  Was.  Awful.

My parents offered to keep my kids, but I opted to bring Eva along.  I have no idea what I was thinking.  She fusses a lot in the car.  I drove all over town looking for a game (that I never found) and bandannas, which thanks to Pinterest, I almost never found.  It was dreadful, but I finally gave up, and with a crying baby on my hip, after dinner time, I fell into my parent's doorway, exhausted.

My mom and I got right to putting everything together.  My dad smoked a turkey, and we had cakes and cookies all ready to go.  After hours of work, our decor was perfect, our menu was set, and we were ready to fall on our faces.

The next morning, still feeling trampled from the night before, we got up, dressed in our best red, white, and blue, and made that long mile long drive to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

We started our festivities with some delicious lunch.  We ditched our plans of a big picnic (which ultimately, would've given me better pictures...) in order to not have to carry everything outside.  Though I'm lamenting the loss of my photos, I'm happy we gained that time to just chat and laugh.

The more I look at these pictures, the more I giggle.  They are perfect examples of each of their little personalities.

Isaiah is sweet, with such a sunny disposition.

Izzy is quirky and original.  I never know what this one is going to think up.

And Eva...oh Eva.  She seems to be a funny middle ground between the older two.  I can't wait to see what she's like as she grows!

After lunch, we headed to the local fireworks stand to pick up a few things.  I've found I really prefer to do this the day of.  It made for a really fun little outing for just Bird and I with our kids, and we didn't have to worry about storing these things.

We didn't go big this year.  With a pretty measly fireworks budget, we opted to keep it simple, and I'm so glad we did.  The kids really enjoyed what we got, and I didn't feel bad about the cost.  Win-win!

We got back to the grandparent's house, bag of goodies in hand, and decided it was the perfect time to swim.  We got all ready and headed out to the pool.

Eva had never gotten in, so we thought it would be a fun first.  She loved it.

I think.

Honestly, I wasn't sure the whole time I held her.  She just screamed.  Not angry.  Not happy.  Just screaming.  And splashing.  And a few giggles.

Isaiah is an old pro at this now.  I can't believe his little feet can actually touch the bottom in places. (eek!)  He's my water baby.

And yes, he's holding onto a watermelon.  That's how we chilled it.  It was cold in that water!

Izzy can finally swim on her own this year, but she's still a bit apprehensive.  She's somewhat of a wall flower in the pool, and pretty content to sit on the ladder.

Unless Aunt Kara is throwing her into the air.

And this is what happens when Daddy tries to take a picture of his girls.

It's the best organized chaos.

After swimming came games.  Then dinner.  Then more games.

Eventually it was dark, but in kid-time, it took forever for that to happen.

When the light was gone, we busted out the sparklers and fountains from our earlier visit downtown.

Oh the pops and lights and squeals of delight!

The kids weren't huge fans of holding the sparklers, but they did love watching Daddy running around with them!

After the last fountain was out, we laid out on the grass with pillows and blankets and a cozy fire pit to make some s'mores, and with a makeshift screen attached to the side of the house, the cold July (crazy, right?) night air surrounded us.  We fired up the projector we borrowed from our church to watch...what else?  Independence Day!

We will not go quietly into the night....but thankfully, the kids did.  Izzy cuddled with us as Isaiah drifted off to sleep to the movie sounds.

It was a long, long day.

Almost as long as this blog post.

In the end, all the work of driving and decorating and cooking was totally worth it.  This was certainly an Independence Day for our record books!