Our 4th of July!!

The parade!

 

We had a great 4th of July again this year! For the last three years we have been invited to the Erickson's annual 4th of July bash and it is so fun.  This year, the Erickson's left for the summer -- Phil is teaching  at BYU.  It seemed lonely and sad to celebrate the 4th without them so I suggested to Ryan that maybe we should host their party at our house this year since it was our last 4th in Iowa.  He agreed that we should.  So we did!

 

 

Our 4th of July went down like this:  First thing at 10:00 AM was the city's parade.  I did not go.  I wanted too, but I wasn't up to it.  Last year I went and got sick in the sun, so I stayed home.  Ryan said the kids had a blast.  He took these pictures for me.   

 

 

 My cutie boy!

 

 

And my cutie girl...I was proud that she was wearing red, white, and blue, but she didn't have her hair combed yet! 

 

 

 

At 12:30 our party started.  I have to say we were ready when our guests arrived-a miracle!!  Look at these cute desserts that they made and brought!  It was blueberry buckle and jello cake--both were so good.

 

Here are some pictures of our guests.  Here you see Laura in yellow.  She made the cute jello cake. 

 

 

 

Here is the crowd, listening to Ryan welcome everyone, and telling them that we only have one rule, --no drowning!!

Still listening to Ryan!

 

Elder Bailey and the Blackmon's on the couch. 

 

Cute Perry's enjoying Ryan's fine grilling of hotdogs and hamburgers! 

 

 

We had two small tables for the kids...thanks Erickson's for lending us all your party gear!!  Here are a few Nelson's with  Jace and Sanders-wearing yellow.  I just have to say that Jace has been so excited for the last month helping us plan the festivities for the day!!

 

This is Jared and Issac Nelson.  They were the first family that befriended us when we moved here.  They invite us to Thanksgiving and Christmas at their house each year.  We will miss them!

 

 (Notice the blue tarp above Jared's head??  The Dr was very proud of this invention!  It made our deck so pleasant to sit out on and eat!-- and special thanks to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for providing the table and chairs!!)

 

Elder Jentzen from Idaho! 

 

 Lunch!

 

 

After lunch Ryan took the cover off the pool, and the craziness began!!! 

 

Here is the backyard from my view on the upstairs deck.  I sat outside with all the women having a lovely visit while Ryan--in his own words--was preventing Lord of the Flies from happening in our backyard!!  Good job Dr.!!  We set out our slip n' slide as well, but the pool was the main attraction.   

 

 

Here are the kiddie pools for the small kids.  (Notice the yellow and red floating squeaky toys--those were great fun until our neighbor's lab got one through the fence and ate it...that added some drama to our party! Luckily the dog was fine--could have been a nice sized vet bill!)

 

 

 

 After the kids swam for a good hour or so, we had a piñata-courtesy of Jace's party planning!

 

Ryan was in charge of all the activities.  He is fun and funny...so it was perfect. Here the kids are voting to hit the piñata either blind folded or not blind folded. 

 

Jace and Gracie had gone with me to pick out the pinata and Jace had filled it with about 8 lbs of goods,  he was so excited to share it with his friends.  

 

We started with the youngest kids hitting it first then going up to the oldest.  Here is my little darling-with her hair combed-giving that treasure chest a few good whacks. 

 

 

 

 

This is my only picture of Jace ! 

 

 This is Nate Perry.  His parents Ben and Jessica are in the background in red shirts.  Ben is in the Elder's quorum presidency with Ryan and Jessica has been my home-school mentor this year.  We have grown pretty close.  We will miss them. 

This is Jared Perry.  Jace's idol!!  Jared loves Legos and Jace adores him! 

 The kids getting the goods after it fell down. 

 

 More distribution of the goods.  The parents were so helpful and made sure everyone got some loot. 

 

 

 In Erickson tradition, we had a watermelon toss.  We had two watermelons.  The first one, Jared Nelson tossed for us above the red plastic tablecloth you see, and the last one, Shayna Blackmon threw off our deck!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there it is.... and the kids gulped it down.  I forgot to take a picture of us eating it.  It was good!! 

 

 

Laura had brought snakes and sparklers for the kids and Jared Nelson lit them for us.  The kids LOVED it!!!! 

This picture is of Gracie getting a sparkler..it made this post because it is the only picture of me.  You can see my white baby bump in the background--23 weeks!

Our guests had all left by 5:30.  It was so fun. They were wonderful. We had 30 people total including the 4 of us.  I was so touched that they all stayed and cleaned up everything for me.  They didn't want us to do it. We rested up and went to Coralville's fireworks that evening.  Notice Gracie-she is fast asleep under her pink blanket.  We tried to wake her up, but she was exhausted from a very full day. 

 

 

 Luckily, on July 5th Iowa City did their fireworks. Gracie was awake for these.  She was pretty crushed that she had missed them the night before.

 

 

 

Aren't their "ear muffins" great.  They hate the noise! 

 

 

Fireworks!!

 

 

It was a great day filled with blessings. As I was decorating for our party that morning, I was so grateful that our prayers had been answered.  We had been praying for a warm, sunny day, but our weather had been awful for weeks and was predicted to still be stormy and cold for the 4th so my heart was so full of gratitude when I woke up to a beautiful, warm, sunny day. We also felt so blessed to be surrounded by people that we have grown to know and love . 

 

We are so blessed to live in AMERICA!! 

God bless America, Land that I love!