Independence Weekend Parties...

I'd have to stop and think a while if I were to say the last time we were actually in Michigan over the 4th of of July. Between annual out-of-state family reunions and the fact that Jon usually has a week of vacation during that week, it is usually the case that we are long gone. For a variety of reasons, this year was a bit different.

On Friday evening we were expecting the arrival of our friends from Wisconsin, the Conraths. Carl is a good friend of Jon's from his first job at GE and also stood up in his wedding...wearing a kilt...just had to throw that in :)

Aneliese, Carl's daughter, is Jon's 4-year old god-daughter. They have family in Erie, PA and so decided that they would take a brief detour on their way and stop for a visit. Unfortunately, we got a call on Friday afternoon saying that their 2-year-old son had been up the night before with a fever and ear infection. Their plans had changed and they were still in Wisconsin. So, instead of hanging out with the Conrath's, we had a fun family outing to Home Depot and Lowe's to get some shelving for the garage, which was in dire need of some organization. A quick stop at Dairy Queen made a nice end to the evening.

On Saturday morning, we cleaned and organized the garage. It is so nice for the kids to be able to access (and put away!) their toys by themselves! Plus, we now have a method to the madness of sorting all the various recyclable items....ahhh.

Saturday afternoon we were hosting a 3rd birthday party for our (local) god-daughter Lilly. She, her older sister Rosie (age 4), and Marie have so much fun playing with each other. They played hopscotch, threw water balloons, ran around in the sprinkler, went swimming in the pool, read books and generally packed a lot into an afternoon. And of course, there was cake, ice cream, and presents.










On Sunday, we headed to Mass and stayed afterward to celebrate the baptism of our friends' dear son. That was followed by a BBQ during which we got to catch up with even more friends and Marie and Joey got to play on a really cool play structure, in the sand and on a trampoline. Somehow, I forgot the camera though and didn't get any pictures. :(

We opted not to go to any big fireworks displays...our kids do go to bed late, but since they wouldn't have started until 10:00 and we were really not looking forward to battling lots of mosquitoes, we just stayed home. Marie thought she was pretty big stuff though when she got to play with a few "sprinklers" (sparklers).

Monday was another beautiful day, though rather hot. A perfect day for the pool. Our friends the Clausers came over in the afternoon to take a dip. Megan is the same age as Marie within days and Jacob is within a few months of Joey's age and they all get along pretty well. The water was great, all the kids (and dads) enjoyed it I think. We grilled again and had some yummy veggies from the Clausers' garden. Afterward, the kids all played in the sandbox. They must have had fun because it was straight to the bathtub for the kids and I have never seen so much sand in the bottom of our tub. It took a few iterations, but we are happy to report that Marie no longer has sand in her hair!





That's about all from our busy weekend. We hope yours was just as fun and that you were able to celebrate the blessings of our freedom as well!