We have had a great weekend celebrating the birthday of our wonderful country!  Yesterday, the girls all invited one friend to go to the pool with us and spend the night.  Avery couldn’t understand why she was not allowed to invite a friend, but she was just as happy to play with the big sisters’ friends!  After swimming and cooking out with our neighbors, Billie Jean, Alex and Logan, we made s’mores around a fire pit.  Oh my…I had been dieting pretty well for two whole weeks, but couldn’t resist.  I only  made one, but finished half of Avey’s.  The girls had a fashion show for us…at least those expensive dance costumes that get worn once do see the light of day again every now and then!  Julia and her friend weren’t interested in dressing up but they did makeup and nails for the younger ones.

They stayed up until about 1:45 am but did sleep in until we woke them up for breakfast at 9:30.  I would’ve let them sleep longer but their parents were all coming around 11 to pick them up.

Today, we had a great day just hanging out together.  Thayer got a much needed haircut and we got milkshakes at The Cook-Out.  It just opened in Goldsboro and has a huge selection!  Yeah, when I break a diet, I do it right!  I didn’t order one of my own because I knew I’d have at least 1/2 of Avery’s.  I really wanted a blueberry cheesecake one, but she ordered a caramel fudge which was very yummy.  Then, we went swimming again.  I didn’t have the camera, but wish I could show you how well Avery is swimming.  She started doing cannon balls today in the deep end!  Madi is doing very well this year and I am so thankful for the opportunity to take her somewhere she can work on strengthening those muscles without it seeming like work to her!  We grilled some more tonight and then had our own fireworks show.  We missed the ones the city does because they moved them to July 3 and we didn’t find out about it until…July 3!  They are always on the 4th and we had plans to go tonight.  Anyway, our neighbors gave us a box of fireworks they weren’t going to use so we had our own little show.  They were nothing special except for one that was a 25 round one.  It went on and on for about a minute and was really cool.  The price tag for less than one minutes entertainment…$16!  After Thayer dropped one that chased us into the yard, fireworks time was over!  The camera wasn’t cooperating very well in the dark, so this is all I got!

We hope you have had a great weekend celebrating our freedom too!