4th of July 2015

We had a great time celebrating the 4th of July this summer.  There's an annual parade not far from our house that we've never made it to.  We checked it out this year for the first time and the kids loved it.  They got lots of candy and flags!

Jack, Charlie, Lily, Mia, Anthony, Addison, Natalie and Annison

Brooks, Jack and Charlie

Later that afternoon, we followed our tradition and went to the O'Fallon Freedom Festival.  A big group of us has been going for the past few years.  The kids started out with face painting and some free little games.

Then we headed over to the main carnival, where they have rides and games.  This year, Jack and (through peer pressure) Charlie, were too cool for the kiddie rides and only rode a couple of them.  Unfortunately those were the rides with the shortest lines.

Jack and Lily insisted they wanted to ride the bumper cars (first time for Jack!!), so we stood in line for over an hour!!!  Charlie got to ride with Daddy, Jack and Mia rode together and Lily rode by herself.  There were only 4 functional cars, which is why the line was so ridiculous!!

They had fun, but Jason and I were finished with lines at that point, so we sold the rest of our ride tickets.  After we ate some gourmet carnival food, we played a few games.

Then it was time to settle back into our spot on the lawn to wait for the fireworks to start.

Hayden, Addison, Lily, Reghan, Mia, Drake, Charlie, Jack

 A series of selfies with Mommy:

The boys with their new treasures from the games (i.e. Dollar Store items that we paid $10 for...)

 They handed out 3-D glasses when we got there, and they made the fireworks look really cool!

We had a great night, as always!