A Fantastic Fourth

Happy Late Independence Day All!

Was yours wonderful? Ours was wonderful. The 4th is seriously starting to creep up on my beloved Valentines Day as a major contender for my favorite non-huge holiday.
We started the morning off with terribly basic whole wheat muffins with patriotic berries and whipped cream:

It was pretty cute when Jack figured out why I chose this particular breakfast... "Hey mom! These are RED, WHITE and BLUE! Just like America! RED strawberries, BLUE blueberries and WHITE whipped cream!"

I let the boys go crazy decorating their own muffins.
What kid doesn't love squirting whipped cream?
(PS- Yes Jack is still wearing those Christmas PJ's at night despite the heat. The boy is crazy!)

Truman obviously didn't decorate but he sure enjoyed eating! I even squirted a little cream on a strawberry for him. Tell me this Truman collage isn't the cutest thing you've seen today...

After Corey woke up and I prepared our side dish for the family get-together we headed off to Gram and Grampas!
I didn't get any pictures of lunch because a darling one year old was having an extremely difficult time of it. He was teething (only I didn't know it at the time) and every time he lost sight of me, or I put him down, or someone looked at him and smiled... he burst into tears. I tried feeding him, giving him a nap... it was all basically no good. He finally did eat and we were able to go outside and snag some Family pictures:

The boys looked so cute in their shirts and glasses from Gram!

Jack was having smiling issues. We have since showed him these pictures which he laughed at in spite of himself.
I love this one:

And how sweet is my Alaster? This picture says it all about that boy:

After lunch we put on our suits and headed to the Stuki's pool!
Jack showed off his swimming skills to everyone. This summer he's become an adept diver. He loves to throw pool toys down to the bottom and retrieve them. He also does the cutest slow motion (not on purpose) underwater back flip I've ever seen. Alaster did great swimming across the pool with a kick board and playing with everyone:

Truman loved the pool as always despite his mouth pain. (As long as it was daddy or mommy holding him that is. He wouldn't even go to Uncle Tyler!) Yes, that is a picture of him hanging on for dear life to the edge of the pool. Mean daddy!

I loved this shot:

We really did have so much fun at the pool! There were races, water fights (Gram provided guns for all. Uncle Casey and Tyler were pretty serious about the war), and just a lot of fun!
It was pretty hot on the 4th, so we were grateful to escape in a cool pool for a while...

Truman made it about 2 hours (pretty good babe!) and then he and I went home for baths and a nap. Everyone else kept the fun going for a while longer.

Eventually we all headed back to the house for more food!

We ate, talked, played wii, watched movies, had ice cream, went on scooters, played games... you know.. the uge. We loved it as always.

Truman felt better after a nap. We had fun watching him "play," with the dogs. Bailey and Oscar were pretty patient with him. He was relentless with Bailey particularly. Pretty funny!

Going to Gram and Grampa Burton's house on the 4th is so fun. They have their home decorated in an Americana Theme all year round, so they are well equipped for the 4th! Everywhere you look there is a flag! They add some special touches for the 4th, and it's a lot of fun:

Casey, Kristine and Tyler headed back to Chicago after dinner. We were sad to see them go, but grateful we were able to spend the day with them.

Truman and I went home at bedtime, but Daddy, Jack and Alaster accompanied Gram and Grampa to the fireworks. They didn't get home till 11:00pm! From all they have told me it was a magical time, just like it should be:

And that was that! A very successful 4th indeed! And the boys have had fun playing with their goodies from the day ever since...