Our 4th of July w/e

We had a reasonably laid back w/e. Sat. morning we met Kerri & Daniel & fam at the McWane Center for a little play time with Carter & Callie. They had a great time on every floor & then we all went & had lunch at Newk's (my 1st time to eat there; can you believe it?! & it was delish!) before heading home for a nap.

C checking out the touch shark/stingray tank...

A couple of these pegs ended up taking a trip around with us...

They have a fun little maze & C only got stumped once. He loved it & I think would've totally gone thru it by himself...I could barely keep up with him!

D & J built some fun tunnels & forts...

Sat. night our neighborhood held it's annual event with a patriotic parade of unique cars led by a fire engine thru the neighborhood to the country club for BBQ, fireworks and fun. They had a moonwalk or "bouncy" according to C & he enjoyed getting in & out & lounging inside (see pic below) while the 'big' kids bounced him around. He is just like his Daddy & likes to just sit & observe.  Sorry for the net & not so great pics...these were taken on my phone.

Finally getting a chance to bounce on his own when no one else was in it!

The firetruck stopped by the festivities for a visit...C's love!!

Daddy & C waiting on the fireworks to start...he's getting good at this smiling thing! :)

He 'stole' this huge glow stick from these little teenage girls sitting next to us talking about "how to get a guy to like you" & such...too bad they ran off b/c I was really enjoying eavesdropping on their entertaining convo. :)

My photography class has been going great & the teacher showed us how to take fireworks pics so I took my first stab at it...I think they turned out pretty well. You can basically hold open the shutter & catch as much or as little of the fireworks as you want. Some of them would have turned out better if I had a tripod...I guess I need to add that to my camera accessories wishlist.

Doing a little practice on C while he twirled the glow stick...

C loved them & could have cared less about the loud booms...some of them were pretty intense even though we were a good distance from the launch site. It amazes me the noises he doesn't really like (vacuums, the stand mixer, hair dryer, etc) but could care less about loud thunder, lightning, fireworks, etc.

My mom took C Sun morning to church which allowed us some time to get some things done around the house. I met them on Mon morning at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church which has a huge outdoor 4th of July celebration/carnival with games, cake walks, BBQ, music, raffles, etc. I didn't take one pic b/c it was either scorching hot or it rained for a bit but we hung in there & he really enjoyed pulling the floating ducks out of the baby pool for prizes (his prize of choice was bouncy balls which we now have 5 or 6) & going fishing for prizes, bean bag toss, putt putt, etc. After a good nap we contemplated either going to the Barons game (which ended up having a rain delay) to watch the fireworks after or going to see Thunder on the Mountain but both were so late @ 9pm or later that we decided against it. C has been sleeping much better...Hooray!...& hasn't woken up in the middle of the night since Fri. He talks about the "magic" gate anytime he sees it & wants to make sure it is closed, so it's working like a charm. :) Now if I could just get him to sleep in a little longer that would be great but I'll take what I can get.

I hope everyone had an enjoyable & relaxing 4th!!