4th of July Weekend

We started out the holiday weekend by heading over to a friends house for the Lakewood Parade - it's always so festive and such a great way to celebrate the 4th! I tried really hard to get a good pic of the boys but they just weren't as into it as I was. boys. 

Ready for the parade to start!

Ryan and Emmy

Sweet Ford and his marshmallow pop!

Happy boys!

He loves marshmallows. 

Hanging with daddy

telling stories...

The boys had a blast watching the parade...and of course they loved all the candy too! 

After the parade we headed back home and loaded up the car for the lake house. 

We arrived at the Terry's beautiful new lake house around one o'clock and got settled in. Since G hadn't napped yet I got him all fixed up and he crashed. The rest of us got our suits on and headed outside to hangout with everyone else.

Later that evening we grilled out hotdogs and hamburgers - Grayson ate two hotdogs! Hungry man! Mrs. Paprocki took all the littles outside for some fun games - they played Duck Duck Goose, Red Rover Red Rover...and a couple others - it was adorable! Of course the adults joined in every once in a while too!

The boys decided to tackle Scott

Red Rover Red Rover...the older kids understood this for the most part...but the little's just thought it was HILARIOUS to run from side to side. 

Jack, Reese, Marin and Aiden

Grayson enjoyed playing washers...or picking up the washers while others were in the middle of a game. whateve.

Relaxing and watching the kiddos...

When the sun finally went down the fireworks started (well they started a little earlier). Anyhow, I love being on the lake for the 4th because you don't have to mess with your own fireworks, you can enjoy everyone else's.  We let the boys stay up late to watch them and they were so excited!

The ladies (and Clive)

Ryan was so excited to stay up late and he didn't want to miss anything. When we headed inside he hopped on Bryan's lap and passed out...like within a couple of minutes. 

Saturday morning we started the day off with yummy breakfast tacos made by the Itz family. 

We brought our bounce house for the kiddos to burn some energy on...

All the kiddos! Currently 11...what will be the magic number??? From left to right: Easton, Peter, Grayson, Ryan, Ben, Hunter, Reese, Marin, Aiden, Jack and Clive. 

We also took a big group picture but Mr. Terry has that on his camera and I am waiting for him to send it to me. 

The rest of the time was basically spent swimming, eating, drinking (well, for everyone else).  Of course there were bubbles - lots of bubbles. 

Ryan might have been the only child that insisted on wearing his water wings in the blow up pool. Such a safety nut. 

A little paddle boarding with daddy

Hanging out in the water...

Captain Eli...ready to go

Ryan was a big fan of his birthday suit...what a goof!

Sweet little girls! Can't wait for Hayden to play with them...

In the evening we loaded on a couple boats and went to watch the air show. 

The boys were pretty relaxed for this first 30 minutes...and then they were ready to be done. Nothing like being on a boat with five kiddos under the age of four. Yup - might have cut our trip a little short...

Once we got home we watched some fireworks and hung out some more...cause that's what it's all about. Such a great weekend with such wonderful friends! Love our 4th of July tradition!