Family, Food and Fireworks! Oh My!

For the fourth Noel and I had my parents and my sister over for the day. For family functions it is easier to come to our house for logistical reasons and because I have more room in my house for our big family.

The menu for the day was grilled chicken, baked beans, cream corn, pasta salad, homemade sourdough bread, watermelon, and dessert. We decided that we would have all that food for dinner and just make sure the kids were fed during the day. I was in charge of dessert and drinks and so I decided that I would make a version of Banana Pudding. Here is a picture of the dessert that I made and it was fabulous.

In the morning we played with the kids and then they ate lunch and took a nap. After nap time we headed to the pool since we had enough adults for the kids that we had, 5 adults and 8 kids. Of course the pool was packed, but the good thing was that the pool had soft life jackets for the kids and that made it easier. We bought Hannah a floating contraption because she is a water bug and wanted to jump into the water with no protection. Now Elijah was not too happy at first and the triplets followed his lead until they figured out that they could touch the bottom of the pool. Jacob has no fear and that was translated into the pool. They have a kids water slide and Jacob went head first every time. Elijah just wanted to go and Esther became brave towards the end. Joshua just wanted to float in Hannah's contraption and was happy after that happened; he is my land kid but he did have a good time. When we were leaving there was a guy from one of the Cedar Park, Leander papers that took a picture of us leaving the pool with the kids holding onto their animals, so he is putting us in the paper.

When we got home from the pool we gave the kids a bath and then finished up dinner so the kids could eat. That is exactly what they did, they were hungry from the pool and ate very well. Here is a picture of Hannah after eating dinner, do you think that she liked dinner?

The kids did not last for fireworks and I knew they would not after the long and eventful day that we had. So my "safari" went to bed and Pam's kids went home before the fireworks started.

When we bought our house we did not know that we were going to live so close to fireworks. Each year our street and the main street into our sub-division is lined with the cars of people going to the park for fireworks. For the past three years Noel and I have sat in our backyard and enjoyed the fireworks without the hassle of parking, crowds, and traffic.

I hope that everyone enjoyed their celebration of Independence and that you remembered the families that are sacrificing out there for that freedom.