Fourth of July

We had such a great 4th of July this year! This is the second time we have had people over to celebrate and I think it will be a tradition that we keep for a long time! This year wasn't as hot as the past few years but storm clouds threatened to burst and thunder clapped in the distance. We were worried that they might not even have any fireworks. Thankfully the storm passed by with only a couple sprinkles and we got to have a great firework show. 

We spent the day making food and getting everything ready for the party while the girls were taking naps. At least we thought they were taking naps. Natalie was sleeping like an angel but Heidi decided to climb out of her crib, grab the bottle of baby powder, get back in her crib and then proceed to dump the whole thing out all over her and her bed! She was a mess!

Everyone started arriving around 6 and the first thing we did was eat. That is the best part of any gathering I think. :) Everyone just hung around ate their food and talked. There was a ton of food. Mostly just finger foods but Shane grilled hot dogs too.  And of course there were cupcakes and a patriotic cheese cake!

 Heidi really loved her cupcake

 Colby and Sabrina

After everyone finished eating we had our 2nd Annual Watermelon Seed Spitting Contest. Seriously, so much fun. Shane and I had never done a watermelon seed spitting contest before last year but because it was such a hit we did it again this year.

 Badra went first...he wanted to get in a practice shot before we officially started. His practice shot was way better than his official shot. :)

 Dane tried it too

 People would take their turn spitting a seed and then a couple of us would circle the seed with chalk and write their name next to it.

 The kids all wanted to try too.

 Pretty blurry but this is Shane's wind up. Last year he tied with Bub's friend Jay...this year...not so much. :)

 The winner of the spitting contest. He spit it almost all the way to the street!

 

 Badra's official turn

 Johns turn

 Sarah's turn

 All the spectators

The pink circle by the grass in the front is the winning seed. :)

After we finished that we waited for it to get dark and then went over to our neighbors backyard. They set off fireworks directly behind our house but for us they go off just behind the tops of the trees. Our neighbor is just a little higher than we our so he lets us ALL come over to his backyard to watch the fireworks. We bring our chairs and file into the yard, watch the show and then file back out. It's so much fun! A neighbor set off a firework that was really close and it scared Natalie but once I calmed her down and told her that the rest were going to be farther away and really beautiful she got excited again. Both of the girls loved watching the fireworks and didn't even mind when the neighbors set off fireworks close to the house. One cute thing though...Natalie asked if Jesus was making all the fireworks in the sky. :)

 These and the one at the top were taking with Shane's phone. Thank goodness for iphone 4 and it's camera flash! I forgot to bring my camera over to the neighbors when we went to watch the fireworks. :)