The Catch-Up Begins, back to the 4th of July!

Okay, I have slacked on blogging! In my defense, I have a crazy schedule as seen before only a little busier because Natalie is doing 2 preschools AND I am pregnant with my 5th child! Yes I am going to pull out that card because how many of you have 5 kids! (Robin, I am pretty sure you are the only one) Anyway, canning season is slowing down and although I still have a to-do list a mile long I have decided I need to take time each day to do a little catching up on my blog. There will be some days that this won't happen, like Friday when we leave for Utah for the third weekend in a row, and possibly Wednesday when I am teaching my sister-in-law how to can tomatoes, but I will make a valiant effort to get caught up. So here we go...

THE 4TH OF JULY!!!

We started out our 4th celebrations on the 3rd by going to a BBQ at our awesome friend's the Laytons. One of my friends e-mailed me this adorable picture of Lilly and since I didn't bring my camera, this is the only picture I have of that day. Arin and Jaren (but mostly Arin) are amazing at having get-togethers which I love because if they didn't do it, I would probably have to!
The next morning we got up nice and early to go to the parade. Jaren Layton went even earlier and scored us a great seat! I made some muffins and took some fruit so here the girls are enjoying their breakfast and waiting for the parade to start.
Dave and his kids came over from Boise and we always love hanging out with them. Lee and Jean also met us to watch the parade.
Here are all of the kids (and Allan) lined up after the rest of the Laytons got there. Hailey is actually down past Allan sitting with Anna if you look closely.
I started a craft group a few months back and as one of the projects we made t-shirts for the 4th. You can't really see Lilly's in this picture, but it says USA like Natalie's.

Ally wanted a flag like her friend Ila Layton. I was really happy with how cute they turned out! I also found them all these super cute shorts at Walmart.
I also went to Target's $1 spot and grabbed these headbands and the sticker/tatoos which the kids were pretty excited about!
Here are the girls with Ila. You can also see the cute bows that I made for Natalie in this picture.
After the parade we went over to the river and camped out our spot for the fireworks with Allan's family. We went over to Chilie's for lunch with Dave and the kids and walked around the river. The kids were obviously pretty tired because a little later in the afternoon they looked like this!
My parents drove up to watch the fireworks with us and after a quick nap we went and let the kids play on these fun toys that were set up.
Here is Natalie coming out of the maze.
And Hailey after finishing first in a race against Ally
And here is Ally coming down a giant slide. They obviously had a lot of fun.
Then it started to rain and luckily we had taken the Layton's canopy so we all huddled under it and made a little necklace project that Jean had brought.
Of course later that night we watched the fireworks show. The halarious thing to me is poor Natalie was sitting on my lap and about the time the first firework went off she said to me, "I'm tired" and fell asleep basically missing the whole show. It was a late night for everyone and I am not really sure any of my kids actually stayed awake during the fireworks. Oh well, they still had a fun day.