4th of July weekend

We had a lot of fun on our 4th of July weekend.

We had our own makeshift 4th of July parade on Sunday morning. We knew we wouldn't be able to make it to our favorite Wyomissing parade that day, but my girls were intent on having their own. So, we went for a nice walk and they carried flags, a Grover, and baby dolls. It was cute.

Girlies had a blast with their cousins and family on the actual 4th. We went to Aunt Lisi's house for a cookout. These girls of mine simply adore their cousins. The 4 'big kids' played "Super's" all day, and all sorts of other fun imaginative role playing activities. It's so fun (and cute) to listen to Maddie and Faith talk about everything they did with their cousins: "we were playing house, and Faith was 'Momma Faith' and she was yelling at us to get back into bed! But, me and Donovan were pretending to be bad kids." Or, "we were pretending to all be Super's and we had to read our pretend manual." It's quite funny. Maddie and Ella snuck away for awhile too to play Ponies together, and it was really cute to sneak upstairs and listen to their conversations. I am in absolutely no rush for my baby girl to grow older, but she and Chase will definitely have so much fun playing together and the rest of the crew when they're older. It'll be so interesting to see all 6 of the cousins together! Not to mention, Abrie is totally in love with babies these days and has a love for her cousin Chase.

We went to Lancaster yesterday to meet up with Dan's cousin who comes up here every summer from California. Despite the blazing heat, it was a great time (and the park was nicely shaded). I always look forward to seeing these particular cousins, and I always think it's neat to see the family resemblance even in the more distant cousins. My girls had a blast playing with Carlee, Jaimee, and Brady. Faith was so excited to meet her "boy friend" Brady. Hahaha. I always find that I love hanging out with all the kids at the gatherings, and spent the entire time with this group of 6 cool kids at the playground. It's so neat to just stand back and observe my girls (and their friends) when they're playing. Their endless imaginations always amaze and inspire me. They were so intent yesterday on their game of "pirates" and by the end of the night, their fingernails and toenails were caked in sand from digging. They had bark from the tree branches (that they were using as telescopes) ingrained into their fingernails. Maddie had sand and dirt all over her forehead, and she couldn't have been more proud. These were all signs of a fun time.