Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July!  This is such a wonderful day.  I love the patriotism and all the 'flags of America' flying about.  We headed up to Great Bapa's for a BBQ and took along the pool.  Mimi loves it.  There are no words for how much she loves to be in the water.  Of course, it was the coolest day since we've been here--literally barely 80, which seemed cool after the 102 degrees of the other day. 

Mac was having a pretty good time, herself.  She likes to have water fights with my mom, who is ruthless!  It always results in kids yelling "Stop it!" with great big smiles on their faces.  How do you take that seriously?  So she doesn't. 

Mimi has figured out that she can kind of just run at the pool and throw herself in. 

In an attempt to warm up the cold hose water, I boiled some water on the stove in this giant Emeril steel pot.  I didn't take it right inside after, so Mimi found it on the grass a while later and thought it would be a fun water toy.  It was particularly fun to watch her try so hard to lift the big, heavy, water-filled pot and fail! 

Bapa 

Mimi was ravenous at dinner, eating an entire giant hot dog, chips, baked beans (known as candy beans in my house), and root beer.  She was unimpressed with orange Crush. 

Leiden was happy to be there, too. 

I think the funniest part of the whole evening was when Mimi thought it would be fun to play with the empty pool.  She kept upending it on herself.

And then refusing to let anyone else upend it on her! 

And darn it, she was not going to let Grandmere take that pool away.  She was dragged all over the yard with us howling in laughter. 

We came back to Grandmere's later and did our own little fireworks show.  The girls had sparklers. 

Mac was not too sure about holding a sparking, flaming stick.  Good girl. 

There was actually a pretty impressive show.  Aerial fireworks are legal here, this year, so there were thousands of dollars spent around the neighborhood, and we all benefit from their expense.  We even got one of our own.  It sure is a rush to see them go up in the sky.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone.   

Grandpa Mann is still in the hospital, recovering from his surgery.  There have been a few complications, with his heart rhythms and getting the deep breath they look for, but he seems to be getting a little better each day.