4th of July 2010!

I can't believe that today is Thursday...I feel like I am just now recovering from our giant 4th of July weekend. We started the fun on Friday morning with our weekly playdate and things did not slow down until Monday night! We met at Eren's house on Friday and she had the kids wear their red, white and blue. She even had an adorable art project for the boys; they decorated American flags with star stickers. I was blown away at how quickly the boys sat down and got quiet...it was so cute! Apparently, crafts are the way to go from now on! The kids played while the moms got a chance to chat. We stuffed all the boys on the couch for a group picture, which turned out surprisingly well, considering that we are talking about a bunch of barely 3 year olds. At least they are all sitting there! I got several cute shots of Colin and his buddies.

Colin and Jack being adorable. They were cracking each other up!

Colin and Hayden working on their flag projects. It was serious work!

Colin and Ryan working on their flags...you can tell that Colin was floating the room? ;-)

Here is the group shot! From left; Anders, Jack, Greyson, Colin, Ryan (holding Woody in back) and Hayden. Colin loves his friends!

This last picture cracks me up, although it is unfortunately a fuzzy shot. Colin, Jack, Ryan and Hayden all have birthdays within the same month and they were having a great time singing happy birthday to themselves and blowing out the "candles" on a toy cake. This is going to sound so funny, but I grew up with a group of very popular and handsome boys who also shared birthdays around each other. They had a group party every year, which was always a GIANT bash at our local country club pool. I swear this event got bigger every year. They called themselves "The Bad Bad Birthday Boys" (hello 1988!) and for some reason I still remember those parties like it was yesterday...probably because I thought they were all so "hot". ;-) Anyway, when I first saw this picture, I thought about that memory. It looks like we have our own set of bad birthday boys!

On Saturday, it poured down rain all day, which really put a damper on my original fun ideas. We decided to make a trip to the Asian market for dumplings and shopping, which was a blast as always. Colin LOVES that place!! He adores the seafood section to the point that I am worried about what he will do when he realizes that those lobsters and crabs are actually for eating! HA! Afterwards, we hit our first fireworks stand with Colin and he thought it was pretty awesome. We purchased a ton of sparklers and poppers. Colin came home and promptly threw every single popper that we bought in the backyard. It was so much fun to watch...he was throwing them down and stomping on them forever! Jer supervised, although Colin got the hang of it immediately. That night, we lit his first sparkler, which he looooved. It was a wonderful day!

I wanted to attend the fireworks show that evening, but it sadly got rained out. Sunday was the 4th and we got up bright and early to begin prep. I made stuffed strawberries to take to the lunch BBQ we were attending at our friend Dave's house and watermelon-cucumber salad to take to our evening party at Kimberly's parents house. Colin had a great time at Dave's house...we swam, ate, and Colin played endlessly with Dave's daughter. We were late leaving there and missed dinner at our other party, but we had a GREAT time regardless! We were in plenty of time to swim with all of our best friends AND we got to set off small fireworks in their cul-de-sac. I was very shocked to see that Colin loved the fireworks! With all the noise, I was certain that he would turn and go back inside, but he thought it was awesome. Nathan was setting them off and Colin kept trying to "help" him do it! He did hold his ears several times, but never got too scared and really enjoyed himself. After one pretty awesome round, a police car pulled up. OOPS! Colin and his buddy Jack were thrilled with the arrival and went out to see the officer and check out the car. I am pretty sure that their adorable faces are the only reason that we did not get a ticket. ;-) That ended the show and we hit the road soon afterwards. Colin passed out in the car and did not even stir when I carried him to his bed. What a perfect day!

Colin eating a very American spread at Dave's house...ribs, corn and watermelon! :-)

Jumping to Dad!

Jer, Dave and Colin, all looking very handsome! :-)

watching the fireworks with Jer and Kimberly's dad, Dave

Colin "helping" Nate set off the fireworks!

Colin and Daddy with our favorite little man, Pierce

Group shot of the girls and some of the kiddos...Lindsey, Eren and Jack, Kayrene and Ryan, me and Colin, Kim, Hayden and Piercy J!

Ready to party!

The firework that brought the police! ;-) You know it's not a party until the police show up!

We woke up on Monday and headed straight over to the rainforest water park for swimming with the whole gang. Jack's actual birthday was that day, and all the families got together there for a picnic and swim. We virtually collapsed when we got home...it was a busy and wonderful holiday weekend!! The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays and I feel so blessed that we got to celebrate with so many of our wonderful friends!