HAPPY 4TH OF JULY.

I love holidays. Especially in the summer time. It's all my favorite things about the season rolled into one night. Friends. BBQ. Bonfire. Outside on the deck. Littles running around, squealing in delight. Fireworks. Staying up late. I do however, hate the heat, but I guess i'll take it as my other option is freezing for five months straight (we live in MN...) I'm gonna warn you. I took LOTS of pictures.

We began our festivities by making some special treats for our friends:

This is Nugget's job when we bake.

Our patriotic cupcakes. Yum.

 Nugget got to decorate her own tray of cupcakes. She was delighted and so proud to do so!

Friends be warned, eat at your own risk!

I saw this idea in Family Fun magazine, and knew we had to try it. It was super easy and a huge hit!

Dip strawberry half way into melted white chocolate chips, then dip bottom of strawberry in blue sugar (found in the baking aisle with the other sprinkles). A tasty treat.

Daddy surprised us with some kid friendly fireworks:

And the kiddos quickly got the hang of 'em.

Daddy reminisced about his childhood as he lit off some other crazy fireworks for the kids:



The kids had a ball with Chinese yo-yos. Best buck i've spent in a long time. I love cheap entertainment!

Brother didn't make it much past six o'clock or so, but Nugget partied til wee hours of the night.

 Nugget with her buddies, Avery and Norah.

 Love these two. Best buddies. I love how they hadn't seen each other in awhile and just picked right up like they hadn't missed a beat.

Little Miss Avery.

Some more friends and neighbors joined us out on our deck later that night to watch the fireworks. We have a pretty good view of them from our backyard, minus one darn tree that blocks a few every year. Oh well, it's so nice to not have to mess with the crowd of people and just enjoy them from our home. It also is convenient when you have sleeping littles.

Oh, I failed to mention that the above festivities occurred on the 3rd of July. I guess maybe because the 4th fell on a Monday, our town chose to celebrate a day early? Either way, we had fun and it gave us two days to celebrate. So, the next afternoon we headed to a nearby town's parade.

Brother loved watching all the floats and activity of people. He had a huge grin on his little face the whole time!

Nugget is always up for a good parade.

The highlight of the parade? A rare opportunity to witness this poor tractor blow a tire, which was filled with muddy, brown salt water. It was pulling a wagon of teens from the area Catholic school, and the poor things got soaked! Apparently it's pretty dangerous so they all had to be rushed off the float to be hosed down and checked out by the paramedics. Thankfully everyone was ok. The parade hardly missed a beat as they quickly unhooked the trailer, got it moved off to the side, and the remaining floats had to bypass the tractor as it sat there until the parade ended.

Isn't this adorable? Nugget and her friend, Abby, waving to the princesses.

Aww, love a sleeping baby! Although we were both quite sweaty and his little head just kept sliding further down my arm.

Nugget and her Daddy. Love.

Me (with some wild hair!) and my littles.

Happy 4th of July!