Independence Day

Here we are over a month later, but I finally have some time to blog our 4th of July pictures!

We got all ready in our red, white and blue to head to Adam's house.

We spent ALL day watching Mr. Adam and Daddy set off fireworks.  What fun watching money literally get blown!

 

Eventually, they started to get too loud for Gavin, and Riley...well, Riley just got mad about stuff.

We did take breaks from the fireworks to play Cornhole.  So fun!

 My most favorite part of the night came when the sun was starting to go down, and the lightning bugs started to come out.  Such a simple joy of childhood that I have so many fond memories of, but my children have never experienced.  I honestly didn't think lightning bugs were even around here!  Why?  Well, honestly, my kids are usually asleep before the sun goes down in the summer.  But, we also live in an area without many trees or bushes, so we just don't see them!  

So, needless to say, when I saw them coming out, it was like I was a child all over again.  We ran around like crazy kids chasing and trying to catch lightning bugs. Hands down, one of the best memories I've had with my kids in a long time.

We didn't leave Adam's until almost 9:30, and they were both clearly exhausted...

The drive home was beyond beautiful.  With fireworks being legal here, everyone goes all out for the holiday, and the drive from Adam's to our house was just filled with gorgeous firework displays.  Continuous explosions of color, and it was magnificent.  

When we got home, we carried the kids to bed and it wasn't long before Jarrod was also knocked out.  So, I went and sat in our backyard and watched our neighborhood display by myself.  So peaceful and gorgeous. 

 

Firepit!

Last weekend, Jarrod started a fire outside and a friend from his office came over to watch football and hang out by the fire.  Tony brought his 12 year old son, Aaron, and Gavin absolutely LOVES when Aaron comes over.  He wants to do everything with Aaron.  It's really cute.  We let Gavin hang out with us for a little while in his PJs, but he was soon so whiny, that we had to head to bed.  He really doesn't do well past his bedtime, even if it is just 20 minutes!  

Helping out

Mom and Rosi came up with the kids for the weekend. We were planning to get some things done with packing and getting the spare room painted, and we were having a garage sale to try and sell all the stuff I didn't want to move.
Friday night we went out for pizza, and when we left the restaurant, we could see smoke in the air south of us. As we got closer to home, we realized that apartments in West Carrollton were on fire, just about 5 minutes from our home. We could see flames shooting into the sky. From what we heard on the news, 6 families lost everything.
Saturday was a gorgeous day and our sale went really well. We sold all of the big items I wanted to get rid of except for the mattress. It really was a relief to know I had that checked off my list. But, it felt even better when we boxed up all the extra clothes and took them to the Centerville Park Apartments for the fire victims. Between my clothes and mom's things she'd brought up for the sale, we donated 6 boxes and 3 garbage bags full of clothes. They're out of our garage, and into the homes of people who lost everything!