Happy Fourth of July!!! So much can happen in one year. As you might recall, last Fourth we were in London, England with Damien's brother and his family and this year- we are at home with another baby and a lot more on our plate! We really didn't have a lot planned for the Fourth for obvious reasons. We had originally thought that we would either have some friends over for a BBQ or just hang out as a family.
On Wednesday night- I got a phone call from my sister Gina at about 9:30 p.m. She asked me to go onto my email and look at a picture she sent me and to be honest- I was tired and didn't want to do it. I went on there and there was a picture of her by my front door. It took a few seconds to click and then I realized that GINA WAS HERE! She flew in from Seattle and she and Damien managed to totally surprise me and I couldn't have been happier. I was so happy she could meet Emily but also happy she would be here for the Fourth of July!
On the morning of the Fourth, we went to a great little hometown parade in Santa Clara. It was such a great parade for the kids! It was done on a smaller stage than the big parade in downtown San Jose, we could find a shady spot to watch the parade, the kids got to be right up front to see all the floats and performers come by, and it was all over within an hour. It was perfect! We all had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!
Afterward the parade, we went to
Psycho Donuts which isn't really patriotic but was a lot of fun. They have the most
eclectic mix of donuts and the kids had such a blast picking out their favorite. Michael chose a donut covered in chocolate, peanut butter, and nutter butters, Claire chose a glazed donut with fruit loops on the top, Matthew chose an apricot donut, I opted for the rice
krispie treat donut, and Damien got donut fries and a maple chocolate donut that was by far my favorite. It was a really fun activity for the whole family!
A few days before the Fourth, I spent $17 dollars- yes $17 dollars on a package of pop-it blowers from Target (you know the ones where you pull the string and confetti comes out). I wanted the kids to have some kind of 'firework' activity since fireworks are banned in our county. Damien thought they were actually real fireworks and was
devastated to learn that they weren't! He immediately got online and looked up where he could purchase fireworks because our county doesn't sell them. Sure enough, he found out where he could get some which was only twenty minutes away and loaded the kids in the car and tracked them down!
We had a great BBQ dinner with our family, Gina, Heather, Fr. Art, and Ali. When we started the firework show later that night- our neighbors came over to witness Damien in all of his
pyro splendor! I must say- the fireworks were actually really good. The kids LOVED them! Matthew referred to some of the fireworks as 'Good Guys' and others as 'Bad Guys'. He even said one was 'Grinchy'! Emily was completely
unfazed by all of the explosions while Michael and Claire thought the whole expereince was so cool! Overall, we had a great day and were happy to be in the USA celebrating to the fullest!
Happy Fourth of July!!! So much can happen in one year. As you might recall, last Fourth we were in London, England with Damien's brother and his family and this year- we are at home with another baby and a lot more on our plate! We really didn't have a lot planned for the Fourth for obvious reasons. We had originally thought that we would either have some friends over for a BBQ or just hang out as a family.
On Wednesday night- I got a phone call from my sister Gina at about 9:30 p.m. She asked me to go onto my email and look at a picture she sent me and to be honest- I was tired and didn't want to do it. I went on there and there was a picture of her by my front door. It took a few seconds to click and then I realized that GINA WAS HERE! She flew in from Seattle and she and Damien managed to totally surprise me and I couldn't have been happier. I was so happy she could meet Emily but also happy she would be here for the Fourth of July!
On the morning of the Fourth, we went to a great little hometown parade in Santa Clara. It was such a great parade for the kids! It was done on a smaller stage than the big parade in downtown San Jose, we could find a shady spot to watch the parade, the kids got to be right up front to see all the floats and performers come by, and it was all over within an hour. It was perfect! We all had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!
Afterward the parade, we went to Psycho Donuts which isn't really patriotic but was a lot of fun. They have the most eclectic mix of donuts and the kids had such a blast picking out their favorite. Michael chose a donut covered in chocolate, peanut butter, and nutter butters, Claire chose a glazed donut with fruit loops on the top, Matthew chose an apricot donut, I opted for the rice krispie treat donut, and Damien got donut fries and a maple chocolate donut that was by far my favorite. It was a really fun activity for the whole family!
A few days before the Fourth, I spent $17 dollars- yes $17 dollars on a package of pop-it blowers from Target (you know the ones where you pull the string and confetti comes out). I wanted the kids to have some kind of 'firework' activity since fireworks are banned in our county. Damien thought they were actually real fireworks and was devastated to learn that they weren't! He immediately got online and looked up where he could purchase fireworks because our county doesn't sell them. Sure enough, he found out where he could get some which was only twenty minutes away and loaded the kids in the car and tracked them down!
We had a great BBQ dinner with our family, Gina, Heather, Fr. Art, and Ali. When we started the firework show later that night- our neighbors came over to witness Damien in all of his pyro splendor! I must say- the fireworks were actually really good. The kids LOVED them! Matthew referred to some of the fireworks as 'Good Guys' and others as 'Bad Guys'. He even said one was 'Grinchy'! Emily was completely unfazed by all of the explosions while Michael and Claire thought the whole expereince was so cool! Overall, we had a great day and were happy to be in the USA celebrating to the fullest!
2 comments:
Sounds like a perfect 4th. How nice that Gina came to suprise you...what a good sister!
P.S. Brett totally shares Damien's pyro firecracker love ;-)
What a wonderful surprise! I'm sure she loved seeing the kids and you loved having her there.
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