Happy 4th of July!

We had such a wonderful 4th of July weekend. I ended up getting Friday off, which allowed us to stay up late Thursday, sleep in on Friday and get a early start down to Albert Lea for the weekend.
Thursday our neighbors Andy and Carissa came over. Adam and Andy played horseshoes while I showed Carissa around the house trying to explain the changes we've already done. They have a daughter, Hannah, who is Alexa's age that will be starting kindergarten with Alexa. They will meet each other at the corner and ride the bus together. What a comfort knowing they will have someone they know with them every day. They also have another daughter, Courtney, who is 14. Perfect babysitting age. :) It was fun visiting with them and Carissa encouraged me to give the garage sale a try yet this summer. She has one every year and is very successful.
We made it to Albert Lea early enough Friday to relax a bit before heading to the parade. We were excited to welcome Linda back from her trip to Europe. She visited Birmingham and Paris. It was so fun and interesting hearing about her travels. We're glad she had a great time and are thankful she is back home safely. She brought us back a beautiful cross for our new house, me a new purse from England, Adam a tee-shirt from Paris and a key chain bottle opener, the girls were spoiled with the most adorable European style dresses, tee shirts from Paris, a book, a puzzle and an adorable music box.

She had chairs set out for us all ready saving our spot for the parade. The parade started at 6, but we left in plenty of time for us to walk around the carnival and get Alexa's face painted. She was a cute little pink kitty cat. We sat through a few sprinkles of rain before the parade started, but nothing that made us run for the car. The parade was awesome - the girls loved it. Alexa and Lil were running for candy and filled 2 big bags. Several people that we knew in the parade would dump handfuls of candy in front of us. Thanks guys! We were all pretty exhausted when we got back - the girls went to sleep right away. But, Linda, Dre, Adam, Benny and I managed to stay up quite late playing Apples to Apples. We shared lots of laughs and had tons of fun.
We went to the water ski show Saturday afternoon. Alexa and Lil were really sleepy - so it wasn't as exciting as we thought it might be. They were able to see a few of them do some fun tricks, but then we took off for them to rest up before the fireworks. Benny was already getting the grills ready when we got home and Adam jumped right in to help. They made TONS of food. Us girls got the tables set up outside on the patio and started bringing out the food and just before we were about to eat, it started to rain. We quickly moved all the tables, chairs and food into the garage and celebrated the 4th with a very delicious meal. We all ate a little too much, but it was just so good. We just left the food and dishes and went right to get ready for the fireworks. The streets of Albert Lea were swarming with people. It was incredible...where did they all come from? Adam took Alexa up to the concession stands and got us something to drink and some carmel popcorn to munch on. The girls also played with their glow necklaces that Linda got them. They both snuggled up on their daddy's lap when the fireworks began. Alexa put her arm around Lil to make sure she wasn't scared. Such a protective big sister. It was a beautiful fireworks show that actually lasted a good half hour. Happy Independence Day!!!!!!!!

Lillian had run out of diapers, so we made a quick run to Wal-Mart, giving the girls time to fall asleep in the car. I had Lillian's jammies on so we just slipped her right into her crib. They were both out like a light. Benny and some friends were having a bon fire in the back yard - so we went out there to say Hi. Their cousin Mike was there waiting for his mom (Aunt Toni). She had gone to the fireworks with Aunt Rosie.
I visited with Aunt Toni for a long time while Linda showed Mike her pictures from her trip. It was so good to see them again, it's been so long.
Linda and I waited up for Dre to get back from her friends house before we went to bed. We had cleaned up all the food out in the garage and we were so tired.

We went to church Sunday morning. The girls wore their beautiful new dresses from Paris. We had to wake them up to go to church and were in such a rush that they didn't even get a bite to eat before we left, which made Lillian a handful. She cried and begged for a sip of wine during communion. Poor Baby!

Linda had gotten the girls a big blow up swimming pool so we set that up for them to play in Sunday afternoon. Alexa was a crazy kid, doing cannon balls in the pool. Lillian was still so sleepy, so just hung back and sat by me and watched her big sister splash and play.

We took off later Sunday afternoon - anxious to get back to our house. We went for a walk and let the girls ride bike outside for a bit to wear them down - they had slept the whole way home. We took them to a new park, as well.

Hope you all enjoyed the nice 4th of July Holiday...