Why I love July

One might think I love July because of my birthday or just simply because it is the summer, but the reason I love it is because of the 4th of July. What is not to love...warm weather, red-white-blue, fireworks, hot dogs, blueberry pie, watermelon, swimming, baseball, and lemonade. I have always loved this holiday..well, I actually love all the holidays...but I LOVE this one. This years was pretty picture perfect in my book. First off....Charlie was home. This can be rare in July. With the Tour de France, baseball, NASCAR, and a whole host of other random sporting events that happen this time of year, he 9 out of 10 times, is not home. It was a huge treat to have him this year. So on Saturday we took our kids to Southlake to see the fireworks and partake in the festivities a little bit. It had rained earlier that day, so it was actually very pleasant outside. We ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory..always a crowd pleaser, and walked around the Town Square a little. We got the girls ice cream and then we parked our chairs in prime viewing position for the fireworks. Luckily there was a little 3 year-old girl sitting next to us who was very sweet and kept the girls very entertained while we waited for it to get dark. The girls had glow necklaces, so that was a treat.





Then the fireworks began....an oh, boy did they ever. Lauren about had a heart attack and was scared to death for the whole 20 minutes. You could not have pried her off of Charlie's shoulder if you tried. Poor thing was terrified. Sarah on the other hand loved it. As did I! I got to practice taking shots with my new camera and had a blast. I think the photos turned out decently well for my first try so I was pleased!
What do you think?



The next day, on the 4th, we hosted our family and close family friends over for swimming and a cookout. The girls loved having their friends over to play with them. I was so glad all of our family could come. I wish my older brother and my dad and step mom lived closer so they could have attended. We had Charlie's parents, his aunt, uncle, and cousin, his brother and sister-in-law, and her mom, my brother and sister-in-law, and her parents and grandmother, and then our friends who live the next neighborhood over that have 2 girls Sarah and Lauren's age. They had a blast swimming. The little ones played in the baby pool and the older girls swam in the big pool. Sarah really needs to learn to swim...we almost had a catastrophe b/c she lost her kick board in the middle of the pool. I have never been more frantic. All is well, though.









We had sooo much food. We grilled hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken kabobs, beans, salads, deviled eggs, appetizers, cookies, brownies, and blueberry cobbler. Out of all that, the cobbler was the only thing I got around to snapping a photo of. It is hard to play host and photographer at the same time! Go HERE to get the recipe for the cobbler.

It was a great afternoon/evening and a wonderful weekend. It was back to reality today as Charlie jetted off to work and we started a new week. Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend!