fantastic times on the 4th.

we'd planned on hitting Movie fun as a family but due to my late night changing my template, we slept in, and Lance had a hard time getting up once i had everyone's stuff together. so we spent a relaxing day hanging out. we went no where, we ate party pizzas for lunch. and killed time all day waiting for the fun evening we had planned. we picked up Pizza from Barro's on the way , and candy and drinks, and a few friends for the kids, and we hit THE DRIVE IN! whoohoo.

my family had pretty much bailed on going with us this year. So we were going it alone (or so we thought) BUT it turned out to be quite the Party! we brought a few of Andrea's kids with us, my sister Hotmama was there, ONEHM, Lindsey, and Lainie all came to see KUNG FU PANDA. and a sprinkling of fireworks.

it was fun! we got there roughly two hours before the show, not wanting to miss out on good spots, OR wait in a long line , but this year the drive in was kinda dead. so we had a great spot, and enough room to line up 5 cars in a row together.

there was a mother of a dust storm there before it got dark , and the herd of children ran like a pack of wild stallions chasing the wind and dirt . it was pretty hilarious watching a dozen kids running in a pack, back and forth making new friends, and having tons of fun! But it was DIRTY! my hair was gritty and SO GROSS! and i felt like I'd been camping for a week! i was glad for my sunglasses! and our stroller took off on it's own once from the wind. BUT it was overall a good time. and the wind cooled it down considerably. it even tried to sprinkle for a minute. but no such luck.

fun part for the kids? sitting on top of the Van. Lance is one of those people where our cars appearance is not the most important thing in the world, and WHO SEES THE ROOF ANYWAY? no one. so the kids get to climb on top and hang out. there were roughly 14 kids at once on top. watching the movie, ignoring the fireworks. drinking lemon aide out of the spray bottle, YEAH THEY DID that AGAIN! and having a good time. candy , and cookies were shared, cans of coke were passed around and lets not forget squirts of soda from my spray bottle. I take it back,
there were a couple showers once or twice (from the roof of the Van kids spraying the soda over the crowd, "CUT THAT OUT UP THERE!") .

we saw an assortment of fireworks around the valley from our location, unfortunatly, some were blocked by other screens, or the bushes surrounding the drive in. but the kids on the roof had a prime view if they cared to stop watching the movie to see them. they didn't .

we attempted to stay for the second Movie which was Iron man. but the kids were hopping on the top of the van , and twirling, and being generally loud, while Pierce was screaming since he just wanted his bed. i tried to hold him and rock him, or put him in his car seat but he was exhausted so we called it a night at 11 ish.

we dropped off Nathaniel and Felica(andrea's kids), and i chatted with Andrea for a minute. Then we kept Ashley and brought her home to spend the night. we put a bunch of filthy kids in bed and i hit the shower. Man i felt like i'd been on a weeklong camp out. and was SO GLAD to come home to my cleanish house and air conditioning. Joy and Ashley were thrilled to finally have a sleep over! they have planned and talked about it non stop for the last few months? fantasy's do come true sometimes. mother of the year i tell you!i was feeling like a NICE MOM for sure.

so that is our 4th in a nutshell.

can you spot my baby far away in the first shot of the screen?
the big boys had to chase him down and lead him back.

the sun was looking really cool behind this cloud.

We didn't get a family shot,
or shots of any of the bloggers that were there,
after the dust storm, that was the last thing that was happening for me.
and i figured the same went for the other adults there too.

today Lance went and played raquetball with his brother shawn , and pulled or sprained something in his ankle, so he's a total gimp now.

Andrea and her kids came over to get Ashley at 11 and the kids were having so much fun (or we were chatting so much ) they stayed until 4 . we changed her template , she showed me a couple things in Photoshop and on my computer and the kids ran wild. it was a fun day!

how was your 4th?

did you dress in red white and blue?

did you see some fireworks?

what did you eat on the 4th? traditional BBQ food or non traditional?