Happy 4th of July

Great day! Spent all morning at the beach with the kids and Mimi, who is quickly turning into Jack's #1 (he only wanted Mimi to take him swimming, not me). As Jack ran past me in the water he yelled "Mommy, I'm having SO much fun!" And Kingsley was so bold and daring - loved running into the little waves, and didn't even mind being thrown down by a few. The waves would crash into her little legs and she'd yell "mo" (more).

We headed home, took a good nap, and then got all set in our patriotic gear. Everyone looked great, but Kingsley definitely took the cake! She truly looked like an American doll!! Jack looked at all of us as we were getting ready to leave and asked "Why are we wearing red, white and green?" After being told it's red, white and blue he seemed to get the idea: "we're like an American flag!"

Mimi and Papa's beach club was the perfect place to celebrate the 4th...beautiful beach, great food and an awesome band. The kids loved dancing to the band's music, and eating mac & cheese and banana pudding.

We even convinced Jack to share a few bites of his banana pudding with Kingsley:

As we left the club, Jack went around saying "Happy 4th of July!" We figured he'd really gotten the hang of the holiday, until we got back to the house. As we waited for the fireworks to begin, we lit a sparkler (which I thought he'd be really excited by) and handed it to him. He stood there for a few seconds and then asked "why am I using this?"

He told us "I love fireworks. I'm not scared anymore." But - we rushed back to Tidewater, waited for the display until 10:15 and finally we decided to call it a night - I went to put Kingsley down and Jack followed me in saying "I want to stop waiting for the fireworks". The kids were exhausted, having never seen so late into the night. Nonetheless - a great holiday!!