Happy 4th of July!

As Louisa said this morning, Happy Birthday, Merica!

We had a really wonderful day starting with Alex making us crepes with homemade whipped cream.  They were delicious!

Chocolate chips, strawberries, and blackberries.  Mmmmmmmm!

The finished deliciousness with a dollop of Alex's yummy whipped cream

This little girl gets excited about everything we do.  It makes everything so much more fun!

Then we went for a family swim at Rhodes.  A special thanks to Alex for working an extra day to do physical exams on Rhodes athletes to give us access to this great facility!  No pictures from the pool (we need a water proof camera!), but we do have this cute before picture:

After naps (which were late--swimming was just too much fun!) we hopped in the car and headed to Germantown to watch fireworks and have a picnic with the Benners and their friends the Boals.  Louisa wasn't too sure of the booming of the fireworks at first, but I guess they were too fun to watch.  We all enjoyed the great show and were extremely thankful for the cool(ish) evening.  Silly mama didn't get the camera out while we were there, but 2 excited children continued to have fun in the car on the way home:

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th.  God Bless America!

Celebrating the 4th

Well, I just came across too many cute 4th outfits for Louisa this year and couldn't settle on just one, so...we celebrated the 4th for a whole week! Here are the cute outfits Louisa wore. Chisolm only had one outfit that my dear friend, Laurie sent for him. Thanks, Laurie!

Possibly Mama's favorite outfit for Louisa. Louisa wore this to school for the 4th of July parade!

Louisa and Chisolm in outfits from Laurie. They wore these for the pre-fourth parade.

Look Mama, stars!

My cute little man

Louisa's cute outfit from Laurie. I also thought it was funny that she is sitting in the same pose as the baby in the card she is holding

I just loved this picture

My cute little man, ready for bed!

Look at my flag and watermelons!

Isn't she just precious!

PS: check out the "Pink Toes" post below for another of her cute outfits, I just didn't want to double post pictures.

Yankee Doodle Dandy

Happy 4th, everyone!







Today was such a nice day, the weather has been nice and we just had a relaxing day. Alex has been busy in the workshop trying to finish the half rounds of the dining room table, he thinks he may finish this weekend--so exciting!

Louisa took an extra nap late this afternoon so that we could take a picnic dinner and meet friends in Germantown to watch the fireworks. We got out to Germantown and there was so much more than we expected! It was like a carnival--moon bounces, games, a band (that played great music) and food stands serving food that is just oh so good for you (with lines a mile long--we are in Memphis). Trisha was already there and had saved us a spot right in front, we put our blankets down and had so much fun! Louisa has really taken to eating and had a great dinner of ham and cheese, yogurt (oh, and a little funnel cake too). She had so much fun playing with Blake and Carley, it was great!

Well, then the fireworks started...We weren't sure how she would handle them and, ah, I hate to say that it wasn't good. It wasn't horrible, she didn't do anything at first, just kind of stared in the sky and didn't know what to do, then she saw me and started crying. I held her close and she wanted to look at the fireworks, but she did NOT like the noise. So, Alex plugged her ears and that worked magic--she stopped crying and watched the show. Fireworks are one of my favorite things, so I was so happy that Louisa was able to enjoy the show. Alex and I were both impressed with the whole evening, Germantown really did a bang up job. It was a good day and a fun night--all in all, I would say that Louisa's first 4th of July was dandy.

PS: some exciting news--Schnucks (a local grocery store) called Trisha and are going to donate 400 bottles of water for the Forrest Spence 5K! We are so excited, that is half of what we are looking for, a great start.