4th of July

Our normal 4th of July celebrations include family, parades, and fireworks. This year we actually didn't do any of those things! We decided not to travel back to Iowa this year since M had to work on the 5th and we really didn't want to spend all of the 4th traveling. So we decided to celebrate back here in Illinois. We were debating whether we wanted to try a parade on Monday morning, but decided it would be more effort than it was worth with B. He still takes a morning nap (which would have been right during the parade), and he is at the stage now where all he wants to do is crawl around. I could not imagine him sitting for an entire parade! So the boys spent the morning outside washing cars. Daddy washed the van and G washed his Gator.

We ran some errands in the afternoon and let the boys take good naps and then headed to some friends house for a BBQ. I was excited about the food I brought, I made "sparklers" which were pretzel rods dipped in almond bark and festively decorated in 4th of July sprinkles (thanks Mandy!)

The boys enjoying some good food at the BBQ.

We then debated whether we wanted to head downtown for fireworks (Peoria has the biggest firework display in Illinois). Considering the other day I turned on the blender and B started screaming because of the noise, we thought maybe we would try next year!

But we did let G do sparklers for the first time. He did really well with them and wanted to do more. All in all it was a fun 4th and great weather!