We have been going strong for the last few days celebrating Independence Day weekend. FIVE cookouts, 2 sets of huge fireworks and 2 sets of small backyard fireworks, sack races and parades, plus some swimming made for a full weekend and exhausted kids.....and parents! Seriously, it was helpful to list all of those things because I was getting worried about how tired I felt teaching class on Monday!

Anyhow, back to the weekend. These pictures are from Saturday when we went to a picnic at Seth's friend, Vann's, farm. He grows hops, blueberries, and has a butterfly house. Seth has been going over to help him and glean farming knowledge. I have been meaning to post about Seth's love of gardening and farming.......I will get to it soon. We picked a bunch of sweet red raspberries in the woods behind the house. yummy!

playing in the creek before class at the gym:

Here are a couple of pictures from the church picnic:

Sunday afternoon, we finally got to meet Lia Bobilya! The kids were all so excited to sit and hold her and asked me when we would have another baby. I had to break the sad news to them that our family is complete and we would have to enjoy other babies instead. I got to hold her for a couple of hours which was heavenly. Goodness, I love babies!
Annabelle and Lillyanne played so well together. Look closely and you will see that Annabelle has on a pair of Ms. Ami's high heels. They loved trying all of the shoes on the shelf in the garage. Annabelle calls this her "America dress" and was ecstatic to see Lillyanne wearing one as well.

Pretending to ride the 4 wheeler with Grady.

Eli thinks he is 7 years old when the boys are around and keeps up with them well. They all have a mutual love for one another. Caleb was adamant that Eli and Mr. Dana be able to come to his upcoming birthday party. I love how he is looking at them in this picture!

They set off a few small smoke bomb fireworks.

Later they all played on our lot in the seat cut where our eventual house will stand. Sometimes I find it hard not to get anxious and annoyed when we are over at their house because I want so much to be living next door!

This is Myles. He reminds us a lot of Caleb at that age. Don't you just want to squeeze him!?

We got home just in time to watch our neighborhood fireworks show which I am convinced is as big as the downtown display. I have no idea where the fellows bought the fireworks but am positive it was not in this state! They were AWESOME! I was surprised that Annabelle wasn't scared of them at all. I thought we might have to watch them from a distance, but nope, we were right in the midst of it all and felt the fallout (or whatever it is called) hit our faces a time or two.