Red, White and Cute

So the 4th was pretty low-key during the day.  First we held the First Annual Running of the Flags, followed by the First Annual Placing of the Flags at the Curb, followed by swimming w/ Nana in the pool.  It was totally epic.

In the late afternoon we made our way to Castle Hills, which I hold is the perfect 4th of July celebration. Big enough to have great fireworks over a lake and small enough that they have free bounce houses, kids' activities and food trucks.  Added bonus is that we have a bunch of great friends there. We'd be crazy to go somewhere else. The kids had a blast.

After this year we have learned the secret of how to become a 4th of July Rock Star - Bubble guns.
The Pied Piper has nothing on the bubble gun.  Note the 2 year-old holding court w/ tweens by holding the bubble gun.  That's no accident.


The fireworks themselves were awesome.  I was a little concerned that Dalton might get spooked, but  he could not have loved it more. He sat on my lap and clapped for every single one. And he kept prompting me to clap each time too.  It was greatness.


The week after the holiday weekend is always a let-down.  Back to work and school is never popular, and bedtime is the worst. For some unknown reason, Darby wanted to lie on the floor to go to sleep.  It may have to do w/ a recent camping obsession of hers.  I'm good w/ it, but I'm pretty sure Daddy would be willing to pay his weight in money to get out of actually camping. Anyway, we started the evening last night w/ the 2 of them laying down on her floor to sleep.  That quickly disintegrated w/ various potty breaks/ways to get out of actually going to bed.

My big shock came when I went to check on Darby before going to bed.  I was expecting to find her alone in her bed, but to my surprise, this is what I found on the floor:

It's basically impossible to do anything but love this...