Happy 4th of July!

 It has been a harder week for us this week so we were thankful to have a day yesterday to lay some things aside and focus on having a little fun!

We found a free soccer camp nearby for the boys on Wednesday nights which has been fun! Ben's mom got the boys some soccer socks and they picked the brightest colors they could find!

Eliana got a new Dora helmet for working hard to stay dry at night last month and she wants to wear it around like a regular hat:) We played on the playground while the boys were playing soccer.

If you look in the background, the boys were doing warm-up exercises. Samuel is in the gray shirt at the top of the stroller and Z is in red.

Samuel's done and Zakkai is taking off! They are easy to spot in their bright socks:)

About a half an hour in, the rain just started pouring sideways and every body made a run for their cars! The only problem for us was that Ben had dropped us off to go run a quick errand and we were stuck! We walked up the long gravel driveway and found shelter under a covered bridge. At least 4 people stopped to offer us rides:) They are very friendly out here!

Yesterday we didn't feel like driving far and fighting crowds for a big parade so we decided to stay local. My handsome boys;)

Ellie May and her Daddy:) We found a great spot in the shade and only waited about 20 minutes for the parade to start. We didn't have high expectations for such a small town parade and that was good, as it turns out!

Being silly with her hat! The boys asked if they should bring bags for candy and we said no, thinking that there wouldn't be much, if any, and boy were we wrong! For such a small parade, they sure made up for it with candy!

What would a parade in the country be without a tractor or three?

Less than 20 minutes later, the parade was over, ha! It was short and sweet. The best part was that we were back at "home" within 10 minutes.

We had a big family picnic and then some of us put on some sweatshirts and headed over behind the local fire station to watch fireworks. Normally, the fireworks in this little town aren't anything to hoot and holler about but they were getting double the fireworks this year, thanks to the contest the neighbor of my mom won! Remember being on the news and all that?

We had sparklers for entertainment while waiting...

Z mesmerized by the sparkler...

Samuel!

My mom and stepdad, who were barely off the plane from a vacation in CO! Love this picture:)

My cousin and her husband and adorable little boy are in town from TX and it has been so fun to see them! They gave their little one a late nap so he could enjoy his first fireworks:)

Getting darker!

Obviously, the pictures of fireworks did not turn out at all but the show was really great!! We were so impressed and had a perfect view! It was the first live fireworks that our kids have ever been to and they all loved it. A great way to end the day.

Now we have another special day tomorrow....stay tuned!

Catch-up!

 I'm alive! We have had terrible internet problems all week and the company wasn't able to send anyone out to fix it til this afternoon! Apparently, when our new neighbors got their internet or cable set up this week, our cable line got unhooked. Too bad it took 5 days for them to come fix such a simple problem!

Anyways, I've missed blogging and sharing the events of our week!

On Thursday, we went to a local 4th of July parade! Here's our red, white and blue crew:)

Eliana anxiously awaiting the start of the parade. The parade was led by a screaming crew of fire engines, ambulances and police cars. To say it was deafening is an understatement! Eliana wanted me to hold her and I covered her ears while she squeezed her eyes shut.

 

The boys got lots of candy and pencils, which made them happy.

 

We really missed seeing our family but settled for a quiet family BBQ which included watermelon (mmm) and later on, this patriotic dessert! I layered homemade vanilla pudding, cool whip and berries onto some pound cake. Delicious!

On Friday, I packed up my crew and Baby C, whom I now watch a few days a week, and we went to the park before it got too  hot. The boys pretty much spent the entire time riding their scooters in the basketball court.

Samuel loves to be outdoors!

Zakkai alternates between his new bike and his scooter all day:)

Eliana refused to wear her cute hat, instead opting for one of the boys hats:)

And yesterday, we got to celebrate our sweet Samuel, who is now a big EIGHT year old! He got the royal treatment all day:) He requested homemade blueberry muffins. Mmm!

We treated him to his first "Happy Birthday" song and a candle. You can never have too much singing on your birthday!

  Happy kid!

Then later, we let him pick a place to eat lunch before we went to see a movie! He picked (much to B and my's chagrin) McDonald's. We didn't say anything though because we wanted him to be happy!

Eliana sure enjoyed her rare treat of a Happy Meal! The perfect thing was that they all got a Despicable Me 2 toy in their meals which was fun since that was the movie that we saw! Eliana's first movie in a theater:) It was a very cute movie and we all enjoyed it! Samuel was having such a great time.

We came home and got to work on Samuel requested birthday dinner, crepes! He adores crepes and I don't make them often since it is a lot of work and takes forever. We like to have sweet crepes with homemade vanilla pudding and fruit (this time strawberries, blueberries and banana slices) and savory crepes with scrambled eggs and sausage links. Samuel was SO happy:)

And then I made him a strawberry cake! It turned out pretty good, although I was too full from dinner to eat even half of my piece.

Samuel was so happy yesterday and I'm pretty sure he felt special:) They were up late and Samuel asked me to come and tell him when he was officially 8 years old. About 10 minutes after we tucked them in bed, I crept in to find him sitting in his bed waiting for me. I gave him eight kisses, which he loved. I cannot believe that he is so big already. I got really teary when I hugged him tight goodnight, just thinking about how special he is to us.

Later, before I went to bed, I made my usual rounds checking on everyone and I found Samuel sound asleep.....with his birthday card from B and I clutched in his hands. So sweet! Happiest birthday to our Samuel!

Happy 4th of July!

From the Thomas Family:)