Happy 4th of July 2015

We slept in. Cleaned while Steven made Cornbread casserole, then went to my mom's. My cousin Holly invited friends over to my mom's for a pool party. Julia wore her headband I had been creating. It broke down to little clips I had made. The white part was from her baby blessing headband. The tiny bows were from Eirit. Her dress is from Marcie. It was Ella's. 

Aunt Pam left when the party started. Don took her and Uncle Henry to the airport and asked Steven to man the grill. Steven brilliantly got the canopy out. Bruce was also asked to man the grill, but by Holly. Everyone brought meat for themselves we had potluck sides, and holly made a yummy dessert.



 Holly made the yummy cake. She had toothpicks in it with with saran wrap over it to keep it perfect. But her son stepped on the corner through the plastic so she didn't know what to do. Olivia and Steven both separately offered to eat that smushed piece. We decided to put blueberries in the corner. The Olivia added the white to complete the flag look. So festive! They also had red white and blue rice crispy treats!

We went home to get ready for thr Rowdies soccer game. The kids got to be on the field to walk the players out! They waited in the dugout then Dylan held the goalie's hand!

I dropped them off so they could get there early while Tyler and Julia napped in the car. They woke up and we went in at half time. 

Well Tyler woke up. He was cold from the A/C.
 He had to pee so we had to wake up Julia.

Steven got us all snow cones once I got there. It was hard to save seats since it is general admission there in the crazy section. 

Julia was entertained by the snow cone then by the crazy loud guys cheering behind us. "If you love the Rowdies, STAND UP!!" 

We ran to the car. It was getting windy and we wanted to wait out the storm in the car. 

 But we were hungry. So we went into a mostly empty restaurant. It was a vegetarian place. I liked it, but even I didn't like some of it. The potato wedges were good, but the dipping sauce for them wasn't good. The "white broccoli" that Tyler requested's seasoning wasn't that good. 

 We went to the car for a bit, then walked to the water to the perfect place across from the Rowdies stadium. 

I carried Tyler in the sling :)


Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July TODAY!

We went to the beach in the morning. 

 Poor Tyler had barely fallen asleep when we found the dream spot parking spot. I took him out of his car seat so he wouldn't sweat to death in that on the beach, but he didn't go back to sleep. He was so tired but there was too much to see and he doesn't like to miss the fun.

 He was so excited to get to feel the sand!!

 His little BFF Ivy was there.

"What are you doing here?"  "What are YOU doing here?"

 Steven bought the kids a new boogie board at Publix when he got egg salad for our loaf of bread for lunch.

 It's Luiz' birthday so we sent him a text of this.

 And we left this one in the sand for USA's 236th birthday. Dylan was actually the one who asked "What's America's number?" I had no clue what he was asking even when he amended, "How big is it?" He finally asked how old and I figured it out for him. We decided that the fireworks must blast so many sparks out because each one has to be like 236 candles on America's cake. :)

 Paige is back in town and met us on the beach!

 We then mostly stayed in the water. There wasn't much beach anyway since Tropical Storm Debby blasted most of the sand out to sea. There was a lot of kid throwing going on.

 Barbie was at her grandma's 100th birthday party the day before and was still out of town, and Darren's mom and step-dad had just come down for Ivy's birthday, so they weren't there and my mom and Don came all the way to the parking lot but went back to their own pool b/c they could not find a parking spot. Darren's dad and step-mom came for a while but left with Ivy so she could take a nap. We still had lots of fun with the Crews and Andre. I could have stayed longer!

 And they flipped me too.

After the boys showered and napped at home, we went to the Rowdies soccer game. Again, we woke Tyler up from his car seat.

 half time!

 Dylan took some pictures.

Look at the beautiful view.

 Olivia Crew was there with her dad.

 My friend Kim was there! I wonder if she knows all of the cheers and songs like that section dressed like them. I'll ask her if she was with that loud peppy group. It worked, b/c we won 3-1.

 We walked out and sat on the grass to watch the city of St. Pete's fireworks.

 Isaac reminded us to light a pack of sparklers. It was a good thing they had long naps!

What a fun break in our week. Wednesday was a good day and night. Happy birthday, USA!