Happy 4th of July!

Our weekend involved a garage sale (and then shooing away would-be-shoppers on Satuday morning – IN OUR GARAGE), our neighborhood 4th of July parade (my absolute favorite event all year), swimming, seeing family & friends, and lots more.

The parade is so much fun and it’s great to see all the creativity.

We made Jude’s sweet ride into a mobile fireworks stand. He threw candy in bursts to passers-by. I had great intentions of doing an amazing real-looking fireworks stand, but by the time I got to the end of the week with work projects, garage sales, family photoshoot, and more, I was pooped. This was as good as it got – a few drawn signs and some Dollar Store decorations. It was still cute.

EXCELLENT PARENTING ALERT: Jude was, um, bribed with a trip to the Disney Store during the photoshoot the other night. That’s the first time we’ve EVER done a professional shoot w/ Jude. I’ve never taken him to Target or the photo places at the mall, so I had absolutely no idea what I was in for. WOW that was stressful. SO SO SO stressful to get a toddler to smile at the camera with everybody else. UGH. So, hence, the bribe of the Disney Store where they (OF COURSE) only had $60 Buzz Lightyears ( the $20 cheapo ones were sold out. of course.). So he didn’t understand because there’s no reasoning or logic with a two year old. He ended up compromising by purchasing Jessie which his dad was SO not thrilled about. “A doll??” he sniffed. Anyway, Jessie is now our new bestie and goes everywhere with us. Parades included.

Seeing Papa!

In the parade.

This kid cracked me up, riding on his tractor, pulling a stuffed bald eagle in the seat of honor behind him. Too funny.

SERIOUS TALENT HERE, FOLKS. I mean wow. And he FLEW by us, too!

Saturday night, we went downtown and in true ghetto style, pulled off into the grass close to where they were shooting off the fireworks. It was like three hours past Jude’s bedtime and he was a loon, but he had a lot of fun. Simon was mortified because he was shirtless, and we laughed at how redneck the whole thing was – sitting on the tailgate of the car, barefoot and shirtless on the side of the road by the highway. Oh dear.