Fourth of July

We had such a fun 4th of July this year. We participated in our neighborhood's parade (apparently they do it every year, but we've never known about it!), cooked out, visited and played with Maya and Papa and had a fireworks show.

I dressed Noah in patriotic colors for church and let him sport his

baseball tie for good ol' American baseball.

I have the most handsome little boy. One look, and I was in love.

Noah enjoying a 4th of July cupcake before the parade

Here's my front page cutie! That's right! My boy made the front page of the Abilene paper sporting his 4th of July gear for our neighborhood parade.

Marco had to use extreme measures to get a real smile out of this boy.

Here he is ready for the parade. We'd been looking forward to it all week, and decorating his wagon really pumped him up. It had been rainy that week, so there was a concern it might rain. That afternoon, it rained for about five minutes and then cleared right up. Closer to starting time, it turned gray again. Marco and Noah went ahead to the parade to see what the verdict was.
Right as Marco and Noah left to check on the status of the parade, it started raining. I thought that surely it would be canceled, but everyone decided to go for it. So, here are my two boys soaked through to the bone. I'm so glad they went ahead with the parade. Noah was SO looking forward to it, and Maya and Papa had rushed back from El Paso to see it. It made for a great memory.
Poor Marco - he was SUCH A TROOPER!

I had given Noah a bucket of 4th of July Tootsie-Rolls to toss to the parade spectators, so Maya, Papa and I all ran out from under the porch into the rain to get our wet candy from Noah.

After rescuing my drenched boys at the end of the parade route, we all headed back home to enjoy a nice 4th of July cookout. We had grilled chicken, cornbread, salad, green beans, baked & seasoned potato cubes and cantelope. It was amazingly good!

We topped off the meal with oh-so-scrumpcious 4th of July cupcakes that Noah and I made.

Maya brought Noah three tubes of those glow-in-the-dark bracelets, and we spent quite a bit of time playing games in the dark with them.

Noah wanted to have the guys box and wrestle. It was such fun to roll around on the floor with Daddy and Papa.

We ended the evening with a fireworks show in the backyard.

The next day we had a cookout with our entire life group family at the McMillon's home.

The kids had great fun playing in the backyard.

This was too funny. The kids put themselves in the dog kennel. I guess that's what Nick and Reyna do with Maddie and Wyatt for time-out. :)

our life group guys

Webb, Marco, Nick & Maddie, Eric, Austin & Ethan, Tate, John, Tate & Liam

all the kids watching Nick set off fireworks

the traditional sparklers
Here is some YUMMY cornbread Marco made special for the evening. Yes, it looks like a delicious cake, but it's actually cornbread that he made in his dutch oven in the backyard.