Happy 4th of July!

We started off the holiday weekend with a special birthday edition of Sangria Friday. It was our neighbor, Cathy, and her son Oliver's actual birthday (as well as Uncle Gabe's who celebrated down in Bolivia- we toasted you Uncle G!), and Saturday was Daddy's birthday. It was crazy- on a big scale. Lots of people, lots of yummy food, lots of drink, lots of cake, lots of noise, and lots of laughter. Too much of all of these things for any photos.

Daddy got up bright and early on his actual birthday to go fishing. He didn't catch anything, but he loved being out on the water for sunrise. It sounds like a wonderful way for him to start off his new year! We got treats from the bakery to join in his celebration, and then we packed everyone and everything into the car and headed out to see Grammy and Grampy. We spent much of Saturday relaxing and playing, and enjoyed a lovely visit (complete with water guns!) with Aunt Sheila and Uncle Russell. 

Maia has been in the midst of a pretty bad asthma episode for the last week and a half or so. She has the cough variant of asthma, and when she coughs... it goes on and on and breaks your heart. The cough seems to be worst when she first lays down for bed, and it's made for some later-than-they-should-be nights and general frustration all around. (The sleep issue was compounded by one of the medications we needed to give her to open her airways- it made her really restless and that much harder for her to sleep. Luckily she only needed to take it for three days.) Saturday was one of those nights, and I was a very tired Momma on Sunday morning. Daddy very nicely took the kids out of the bedroom and let me get a few (much needed!) extra hours of sleep. When I came down around 8:30, everyone was outside... playing with the tractor!

Maia went first. She was excited, but also a bit nervous to be in control (with Grampy's supervision) of such a big machine.

Cecily was very impatient for her turn. And you can probably tell from Grampy's face that she was not the least bit hesitant...

Maia and Grammy watched from the porch steps as Cec took Grampy on a tour of the front yard, and then Maia decided she wanted another crack at driving.

After fun playing tractor, the girls went to explore the barn with Daddy and Grampy while Grammy and I went to the grocery store. We had a very fun dinner to get ready for! We invited Abby, Lizzy, and their parents out to the farm to spend Sunday night with us and help us celebrate Daddy's birthday and the 4th. Maia and Cecily were pretty much jumping out of their skin from the moment they woke up wondering when their friends would arrive. They arrived right around 3pm, and after a few seconds of shyness settled right in. We had a brief rain storm, and attempted to relax inside for a little while until things dried up a bit. The girls were beside themselves at this restriction, and we finally gave up and headed out into the yard. The girls donned their bathing suits to run through the sprinkler and then play hide-and-seek. (There are few things more hilarious than watching one of the three year olds "hide" on the steps inside or hearing one of the bigger girls giggling hysterically from inside their box or under a chair.) After all that running around, it was time for snacks. And there were lots of them. Cecily decided to enjoy her snacks in a box...

After a yummy dinner (Kara brought her own homemade sausage as a special birthday treat and Daddy was in heaven!), it was time for dessert. Grammy ordered these adorable cupcakes for our fishing Daddy. The girls were very torn- we also had the makings for S'Mores on the new fire pit. Luckily, there was time for play while the grown-ups cleaned up dinner before decisions had to be made.

The lovely new fire pit.

Cecily opted for S'Mores. (Besides homemade Sausage, Kara also brought homemade Marshmallows. And they were delicious!)

The Daddy's took responsibility for "cooking" the marshmallows.

They cooked fast. And one never made it to its waiting graham cracker and chocolate.

Cecily got sticky, very very sticky.

Didn't matter. They were yummy!

I adore this photo of Abby looking so lovingly at her s'mores.

Ruby was very watchful in case another one fell to the grass.

We enjoyed all our desserts, and then put the girls all to bed. Daddy has been taking over bedtime when he's home to give me a break, and it's been a big success. The girls love getting to read books with him, and it's so nice for me to have a break from the routine! After they were all sound asleep, we grown-ups stayed outside chatting around the fire. It was wonderful!

This morning we had a fun pancake breakfast, and then the girls brought down the legos for some building and some silliness.

Of course, we couldn't let me leave without a turn on the tractor!

I asked Abby and Maia to pose next to the tractor wheel to recreate a similar photo from when they were babies. I'm searching for that photo, and as soon as I find it I'll post it.

We said goodbye to our good friends shortly after, and then packed ourselves up and headed home. Thank you so much for coming out to the farm, Abby, Lizzy, Kara and Mike. We loved having you there! And thank you Grammy and Grampy for hosting all of us and making it such a lovely weekend!