Happy 4th of July!

What a wonderful 4th of July we had!  It was full of family, friends, fun, traditions, and of course fireworks!  In the morning, we walked again in the annual Push 'em Pull 'em Parade in Ventura.  Every year I am amazed - not at the number of people walking in the parade, but by those who line the streets to watch the mass march down Main Street!

 

Going along with our tradition, for the fourth year in a row we walked with our friends the Fortunati Family!  It's amazing how big the kids have grown over the year.  And for what ever reason, all of the kids like to wear costumes too!  Such a funny yet fun tradition!

 

Last year Olivia slept in the Ergo, and this year she did better than I expected with sitting in the wagon!  It helped that 3/4 of the way into the parade, just the time when I figured she would start trying to climb out!, she figured out how to unwrap a lollipop and enjoyed that for the remainder of the parade!  Since it kept her in the wagon and happy, the rest of us were happy too!

 

Steve and I and the masses!

 

Julie and I!  The hat ladies!

 

In the afternoon, we ventured over to our church for a BBQ!  It was a fun-filled afternoon with great food, fun games, and of course friends!  The kids had a blast just running around, riding in a bike parade (Faith was the leader - marching out in front since she is not able to ride a bike or scooter!), having their faces painted, and doing the three-legged race!  Faith is getting ready for the race in the picture above with her friend Jaylee!  I participated in the horseshoe tournament with my friend Cindy!  We made it all the way to the semi-finals!  Not too bad for two ladies who had never played before that day!

 

Spidey Shane!

 

Faith had the little mermaid painted on her face!  Both kids ended up having multiple things painted on them (arms, hands, other side of the face!), but these were the first things chosen!  After the BBQ we went home to watch the fireworks from our backyard!  It's so great to be able to do that, especially since Olivia really needed to get into bed!  This was the first time Faith really had seen Fireworks!  In the past years, she has always fallen asleep too early!  Then last year, they did not have any in Ventura!  Watching with her was such a joy as the excitement of seeing them radiated out of her! 

 

This isn't from the 4th, but just had to be included!  She is having popcorn on the couch this past Saturday night, watching Batman (70's style!) on TV with the big kids!  She is really growing up quickly!