On the morning of the 4th, we had breakfast, got dressed and out the door for our neighborhood parade first thing that morning. We quickly had about 3 minutes to snap some family pictures before we left.
Carter rarely poses for pictures these days, so we gladly got a few of him while he was willing!

Something was funny!
4th of July cuties.
with Momma
And, below are the ONLY two pictures taken of the 4 of us all day long. Just look at how great they both are! All smiling and looking at the camera..... amazing! Thank goodness we had 3 minutes for pictures or we'd have missed out on these!
So, this is our "float"
I'm seriously creatively challenged, and when I saw that we were
supposed to decorate a float, I was clueless on where to start. This is
what I came up with. I thought it looked goofy, but whatever, we had a
decorated float, and we were off to our first neighborhood parade.
The firetruck came and everyone lined up to get a close look....
And then take a quick inside tour....
Carter went through too, but alas, I was not there with my camera in hand.
And here, he refused to smile. Cute pic anyway.
A little playtime before the parade starts.
So, wanna know the funniest thing about my decorated wagon? While I thought it was a very pitiful attempt at a patriotic float, to my surprise, it actually WON our neighborhood float contest! Ha! That still makes me laugh! But, Carter got to wear a "winner" ribbon and the kids got a fun water gun out of it, so it actually ended up to be a pretty sweet deal.
Lights and siren going, the firetruck led the way for the parade.
Eric very proudly pulling around our award-winning (HA! Hahahahaha!) parade float on the parade route.
Sweet girl finished the parade on Daddy's shoulders.
All done and heading home.
So after the parade, we headed to IHOP for brunch with the kids. Then took them to the movies to see Despicable Me 2. This was Ella's first movie, and she did surprisingly wonderful!! She got a little restless while we waited for the movie to start and sitting through the previews, but once the movie started, she couldn't get enough of the minions. I fully expected to have to leave with her halfway through, but as long as she was able to go back and forth between mine and Eric's lap every 10-15 minutes and we kept her cup full of popcorn to snack on, she was a happy camper. We all loved the movie! It was so funny, looking forward to seeing it again!
Later that evening we headed to Lewisville for dinner and fireworks with The Byrums, my brother and his girlfriend, and my parents.
Ella "chilling out".... so ladylike.
Carter and Ava playing while we waited for the show to start.
The guys played catch.
Sweet girls.
Fun with glowsticks!
The fireworks made this little girl a tiny bit nervous.
Soooo handsome
Carter watching the show from his spot. Can you tell he's tired?!
We headed home and up the tollway just in time to see Frisco's fireworks show, too! We watched it all the way from 121 in The Colony until we pulled into our neighborhood. And I think we ended up seeing at least portions of 5 or 6 different shows over the 3rd and 4th. Fun stuff!!
We had such a fun 4th of July this year, and hope you did too!














































