4th Of July Weekend Festivities

Happy July everyone! I know I say this at the beginning of every month about the previous month, but geez where the heck did June go? Holy smokes, I think I blinked and June was over with. Summer is just whipping by and before we know it we'll be talking about Labor Day weekend like I'm about to talk about 4th of July weekend. It's time to play catch up from almost a week ago when you heard from me last. On Thursday I finally took the kids to the library. It's been a little overdue as they have kept asking and we just hadn't found the time. We went Thursday morning and met my friend Jess and her kids there. The kids had a great time playing and picking out books. We also happened to see a lot of other families from the neighborhood. I guess it was the day to go. We discovered the "Make A Splash: Read" program while we were there. This is a program for kids preschool to 7th grade. Kids can take a sheet that has 15 items on it and they have to complete 7 of them each week. Then you can go back to the library, turn it in, and they get a little prize. Great reading incentive for the summer. I think we'll be hitting the library every week!

Friday we headed to my sister's house for the weekend. Since Greg and Evan couldn't go camping for real this past weekend (everything was booked) they decided to "camp" in my sister's backyard. Evan was really excited about this. He and Greg pitched the tent when we got there and got everything ready. Then we headed over to my dad's to watch the fireworks on the lake. My niece Kaite invited her boyfriend John over so we all got to meet him. Evan had no problem making friends with John right away and poor Kaite and John had Evan and Em hanging around them all night. Grandpa had bought Evan a bean bag toss game so of course Evan wanted John to play. What a kid! It was also nice to visit with my sister's Godparents Greg & Linda, and my dad's cousin Jan who also came over to watch the fireworks. It's been a few years since we've seen Greg & Linda and the last time we saw Jan was probably our wedding. All us "kids" took the boat out for a ride before it got dark, and then when it got close to firework time my Dad took all of us out on the lake to watch the fireworks. It's been years since I've seen the lake fireworks there and even longer since I've actually gone out on the lake to watch them from the boat. We all had a nice evening and it was neat to see all the boats on the lake at night. The fireworks weren't quite as good as they've been in the past. This was the first year they did them from barges since there's no longer vacant land to do them from. We figured probably so much money was spent on the barges that there was less to spend on the fireworks. It was still fun nonetheless and the kids had a great time which is what counts!

Saturday afternoon we headed to my Uncle Karl & Aunt Mary's cottage that is just south of Three Rivers, MI. It's been years since I've been there and Greg and the kids had never been there so we made plans earlier in the week to meet up with them and my cousins over the weekend. This is the Sharkey clan that we visited at Easter time. My kids have no problem hanging with their cousins that they've either never met before or hardly see. First in Arizona they quickly clung to Kevin, Matt, KaiAnn, and Ryan. Now this past weekend they quickly clung to all the Sharkey cousins. I'd name them, but there's A LOT! Evan was going non-stop at the lake all day. He kept my cousin Rich busy too wanting to go out on the pontoon boat (several times) and the paddle boat. He had a blast once the super soaker got out too, and he was running around getting everyone wet. Em & Ev both got daddy to take them for a paddle boat ride too. The Sharkey's were getting dinner going when we got there and made us some wonderfully delicious shish-ka-bobs with chicken, steak, and smoked sausage. Thanks to my cousin Dave for doing all the grilling. It was delish and I had never had smoked sausage on the grill and it was very tasty. They had marinated it, and I was surprised Greg even liked it. I'm gonna have to make some. The kids also got to roast marshmallows in the fire pit and make s'mores. We all had a wonderful afternoon at the cottage and thanks to the Sharkey's for all the food, beer, and hospitality! Here's a couple pictures from our day at the cottage. I'll share more on Facebook. Here's Evan with the super soaker ready to go on the pontoon!

Greg taking the kids out on the paddle boat.

After we got back to my sisters, we had promised the kids a bonfire there so Evan helped Aunt Jen get stuff set up. He was so excited about the bonfire at Aunt Jen's. Em had fallen asleep on the way home from the cottage so she didn't get to enjoy the bonfire. It was the perfect night out to sit around the bonfire, drink a beer, and we made hot dogs and s'mores. A great ending to a perfect day! Then Evan and Greg camped out again Saturday night which once again Evan loved!

Sunday we hung out on the lake at my dad's and boy was it a hot one! It felt really good to be out on the boat since there was a nice breeze! We got to get in a couple boat rides before we headed home later in the day, and the kids even got to feed the swans out on the lake on one of the boat rides. They had fun doing that. Here they are throwing the bread out.


There was supposed to be a boat parade on the lake on Sunday which was one of the reasons we headed that way for the weekend. Whoever wants to enter can and you decorate your boat and well, do a parade on the lake. The theme this year was different holidays so you could pick your favorite holiday and decorate the boat. However, the parade got canceled because there wasn't enough participants so Evan was really bummed. We still had a fun day on the water though. I can't believe how much my kids love being on the boat! It's fun to see them so excited about it and enjoy it so much. Now if I could just win the lottery, we could buy a cottage somewhere!

We came home on Sunday so I could get going on setting up for my garage sale on Monday. I was planning to have a sale next weekend, but then a few people from the neighborhood mentioned they were doing sales this weekend so I figured I might as well too and hopefully we'll get a lot of traffic. I got a lot of work done on it on Monday, but then I took a two hour nap in the middle of the day so had I not done that I could of gotten more done. I'm working at it every day this week so hopefully I'll be ready in time. So that's our 4th of July weekend. I hope all of you had an enjoyable extended weekend, and now it's time to keep surviving this heat!