happy 4th of July

We had a very happy 4th of July ... Independence Day 2011! Happy Birthday, America! We just enjoyed the day as a family, taking advantage of the 3-day weekend & having Daddy home on Monday with us ... which is always a treat!

On Sunday evening, Kendall & I had picked up Grams from the DFW airport (after spending a few days with Pops on his job-site in NC) ... she spent the night with us and left for home the next morning (the 4th). We worked in the yard & around the house, trying to make some sort of progress in several projects that we have going on at the moment.

We had lunch at our favorite sub place ... Firehouse Subs ... it was delicious! Kendall gave us several different faces/smiles for the camera ... our "All-American Sweetheart" has been "cheeeessseeeee-ing" up her face lately. She also looooooves to wipe her own hands with a napkin(s) throughout her meals ... she constantly looks at her hands between each bite to see if she needs to wipe them (and her face) ... she loooves to be clean! Please pardon her disheveled hair ... her pigtails had already been through several hours of fun by the time lunch had rolled around ... apparently!

checking to see if her hands are dirty ...

and of course, they were ... napkin time!

We spent the afternoon swimming & playing ... Kendall took a late afternoon nap, so she would be bright & chipper for the night's fireworks at 9:30p!  Since she doesn't like loud sounds, we weren't really sure how she would be with the fireworks, but we wanted to try to them this year.  We decided to go to Bedford's display ... we got there by 8p to get parked & walk into the park ... found a great location to settle down for the next few hours.  With sun going down, the heat wasn't too bad ... it was bearable, so we were happy about that.  I had packed several things for Kendall to do while we waited for the fireworks show to start ... she had a fun time coloring with markers, sewing her lacing cards, reading books, drinking from a water bottle, and watching all the people & dogs.  The time past by pretty fast and we were ready for the fireworks to start!

Fireworks got started at 10p ... it was a great show ... Kendall loooooved them!  We were in a great spot and they weren't too loud.  She only got scared one time because of the boom.  She just kept oooohhhing & woooowwwing at each of them.  At one point, after several were going off at the same time, she said "it's sunny. on my eyes" ... and it was very bright at that time.  She was tired, but she enjoyed watching everything and all the colors that lit up the dark sky.

Walking back to our car, Kendall was very sad the fireworks were over ... she kept saying "fireworks. oh no. all gone. more! more! fireworks! again! again!" We just couldn't get her to understand it was over ... until next year. We made it to our car and Kendall was sound asleep in moments ...
(Periodically today she has talked about the fireworks & being sad that they went away.  She is our sweet, compassionate, sensitive girl ... with a crazy memory ... and will probably be bringing it back up randomly for 6 more months! ha!)
Hope everyone had a happy & safe & thankful Independence Day!