Patriotic Weekend

USA! USA! USA!

Our family spent this weekend celebrating America's birthday.

Friday evening, we had some of our great friends over for dinner. Walker, Heather and their 5 month old, Caroline, joined us for a pre-4th celebration. I've only met Caroline once since she was born so it was time for me to get some snuggles in with her! She actually wanted to be held by her mom and dad most of the time, but I was just happy to be around her. What a sweet, sweet baby girl! She is one of the beautiful girls that we have hand selected as a future wife for our boys. Arranged marriage is acceptable here, right?!?!?

Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took of our 3rd of July get together.

Setting the scene: red, white & blue

Appetizer: caprese salad skewers and some blackberries
(I just threw in those blackberries for a little
bit of blue haha!)

Da-da and Ryan waiting for our guests

Loving on my boy

Ryan and Mama

 Then the Youngs got here...we sat Caroline next to Ryan in the chair and joked that it was their first date!

Sweet piggies!

Don't they make a cute match?!?!

Ryan's digging Caroline

Then she decides she may be interested...

True love

Hey, hey!

I think it was love at first site! We don't want them to get too serious too quickly so we had to separate them. :)

William with Auntie Heather

Pretty ladies! Caroline and Heather

She was relaxin' with that hand behind her head
while drinking her bottle. Too funny!

We had to put all the kids together for a photo opp before all their patriotic outfits got dirty and had to be changed. I wish I would have gotten a close-up of the boys' shorts - they had tiny American flags on them. So cute! Caroline looked absolutely adorable with her red, white and blue nautical outfit! As is typically the case, it was very difficult to get all the kids to look in the same direction and smile all at the same time. These were the best we get could get.

They're all so stinkin' cute!

William was moving on in!

Thinking about a smooch?!?!

Caroline and her Daddy

She has him wrapped around her finger

Sweetie boy Ryan

Piggy back time - Stokes and Mama

He cracks me up!

Dinner was pork tenderloin, roasted potato and okra salad, and kale and fruit salad. YUMMY!

grilled pork tenderloin

roasted potato and okra casserole

kale salad

 

Dessert: cupcakes and Bomb Pops

We gave the boys their very first popsicle. We have learned our lesson and took their clothes off and took them outside before giving them their dessert. So they weren't too sure about the popsicles. They were "painting" the windows with them. dropping them, attempting to give them to the dogs (we intervened there), rubbing them on their legs and diapers (well that was just Stokes), etc., etc. They didn't do much EATING of the popsicles, but it was so cute and fun to watch them. William kept saying, "Cold! Cold!" each time he tried to taste his popsicle. So so funny!

 

Trying to show him how to eat his popsicle!

William is always so sweet and attentive towards Ryan. He decided to share his popsicle with his brother. It was really very precious. Ryan loves getting attention from his brothers so he was glad to try the popsicle!

William's aim is not quite perfect (HA!) and he got Ryan
on the nose. He looked like Rudolph!

Stokes got in on the action

Ryan was having a blast

Covered in popsicle! Glad we took his shirt off, too!

Double-team

Can you see the popsicle on his legs?!?! Hahahaha

The gorgeous Young family :)

Besties - Heather and me

The girls!!!

The guys!!!

How cute is she!?!??! She got changed before she left
and was checking out her little tiny toes! I love it.

Thank you, Heather, Walker and Caroline, for coming over to hang out with us. We had a BLAST with y'all. Hope we can do it again soon!

Saturday was the 4th of July. Happy birthday, America!!!!
I love the fourth! I know I've mentioned it on this blog before, but I am a big time sucker for patriotism. It makes my heart swell with pride and I tear up almost every time I hear the Star Spangled Banner. I think having lived overseas and traveled around makes me appreciate this great nation and I never want to take it for granted. I always tell the boys how extremely lucky they are to have the incredible fortune to be born in the best country in the world! #proudamerican

So we had a low-key day on Saturday. We did take the boys for a little outing to Lowe's. We had the double stroller in the van, so we put William and Ryan in the stroller and let Stokes walk. I forced him to hold my hand the whole time we were in the store and...(shocker) he actually did it! We did let him climb up on this John Deere, because really, what is more American?!?! :)

After the afternoon nap, we took the little guys to the pool. This is only our second pool trip this summer. We are definitely not taking advantage of our HOA membership. But it's hard, and we try. So whatever.

MaSha luckily was willing to meet us at the pool so we could have a 1:1 ratio. It just makes me too nervous at this age otherwise! Maybe next summer will be a little easier to do 2:3.

Ready to go to the pool and wearing their red and blue trunks. :)

Da-da and Stokes at the pool

Ryan!

Da-da and Stokes

Thomas, William, MaSha and Ryan

Family picture!
Thomas, William, Ryan, me and Stokes

What? What's that you say?
My stars and stripes swimsuit is redneck?
Well, I only get to wear it like twice a year.
Gotta take advantage! ha

Da-da and Ryan

After our pool visit, we just came back to the house to hang out and have some dinner. It was all very chill and enjoyable. By the way, the weather was PERFECT! It was surprisingly not too hot and was so comfortable to sit outside on the deck. Summer is the best, isn't it?!?!

Stokie

MaSha and sweet Ryan

William trying to get into Da-da's patio cooler.
It had adults only beverages in there!!!!

Stokes and William talking to their
Da-da while he was grilling

Silly boys

There's not a lot of "sitting" in chairs these days!

MaSha with William and Ryan

We did picnic style dinner for the first time. No high chairs.
We just put their plates at their little picnic table and
encouraged them to sit there and eat. It was only mildly
successful, but we gotta start somewhere!

MaSha feeding Ryan dinner

As you can see, Stokes abandoned post without
having eaten much. Also, check out the sunglasses on
William...upside down!

He's back....and he stole the glasses...and put them on
upside down, too!

William has such a fun and cute personality!

Snuggling with my Ryan

Thomas bought a few small fireworks and even though
it wasn't dark yet, he wanted to shoot some off
to show the boys before they went to bed.

Roman candles

Then he set these little firecrackers off

They just popped and made a lot of noise

Here's what Ryan thought about the firecrackers.
Poor little guy! He was traumatized for a minute but calmed
down when I picked him up and held him.

We took a quick break to give the boys a bath and put them to bed. They were worn out! After we got them down, our dinner was ready so we came back down, brought the monitor out on the deck with us and ate.

Dinner: ribs, fresh sliced tomato, fresh veggie succotash.
It was all delish!

More Roman candles once it got dark

I even got to shoot some off.
Note for those of you that haven't done it: there's a lot of
soot that falls onto you. Beware haha!

Sparkler time! We didn't do many fireworks, but you can't have a 4th of July without sparklers!

Luckily we have some neighbors a few houses down that do a big time fireworks show! We could see and hear a lot of their fireworks right from our deck. It was some awesome entertainment! We were a little concerned about whether all the noise from the fireworks so close by would wake up the boys, especially considering Ryan's traumatized reaction to the earlier fireworks! Luckily our amazing boys did not wake up - at all! I couldn't believe it and was so thankful!

Our patriotic weekend didn't end with the conclusion of the 4th. That's because there was a Women's World Cup soccer game final to watch. And guess who was playing....that's right, the US National Women's team. USA! USA! USA!

I was feeding the boys dinner when the game started and we scored within just a few minutes. I was jumping up and cheering and the boys would clap and smile!

After the got done eating, I let them watch the game for a few minutes. This is not their first World Cup viewing. Remember this from last summer?!?! I guess they are true US Soccer fans.

I was really trying hard to set up the perfect picture documenting this World Cup game and our love for the US. Ummm, yeah. It didn't work out. I kept trying and trying, but no. Here's what we got.

Stokes watching the game

American flags and a soccer ball!

William, why aren't your holding
your flag?

On the move...

Both flags and having fun

He was so excited!

No one will pose for me! Except Ryan :)

Me: "Sit still and hold this"
Boys: no response, but thinking, "yeah right!"

They were all over the place

Ryan loves soccer and the USWNT!

Our little American soccer fan!

The boys went to bed and the score was 4-0. We were really opening a big, fat can of whoop a.....anyways, we ended up winning 5-2. Love it! What an incredible day for US Soccer and it was a great American weekend! USA! USA!

p.s. I can't wait for the next Olympics! YAYYYYYYYYYYYY!

p.p.s. I just took a look at my post from July 4th last year. It's crazy to realize how much has changed in the last year and how different the boys look. Want a reminder? Here you go: Patriotic Trio!

p.p.p.s. Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
*tear*