A little red, white and ka-boom!

Three mermaids at the lake: the girls' good friend Fern camps it up with Madeleine and Sarah. You'll have to trust me that was the only millisecond of the afternoon that they held still.

Fern's mom Katie and I spent most of our day chasing babies and water toys. Oh, and reapplying sunscreen only to have the children's underarms get burned by the inner tubes they floated on. Go figure. (And then go get the aloe vera.)

Sarah prayed all week for the Independence Day temps to hit 100. Something about being closer to the age of 100 (relatively speaking of course!) made me not so eager for the heat. I spent a good deal of Thursday, Friday and Saturday dragging hoses around the yard for double-time watering efforts in anticipation of the 97-degree days.

Madeleine prepared in a different way. She baked. That's her "chocolate raspberry firecracker" bundt cake. Isn't she proud? And she should be. It was delish!

At Grandpa and Grandma's house the cousins lined up for Aunt Heather's special misting attachment to cool them off.

I think it worked. That's Grace and Cayden. Two sweet peas in a pod.

There's Laura's first watermelon experience. I'm guessing it won't be her last; she liked it a little.
In fact Heather had to hose her down after eating it.

After all our fun with family and friends we sat on the neighbor's lawn and watched the children with their sparklers at dusk.

And then we hiked in to a private lake for an invitation-only fireworks display at one of the local vineyards. I don't think I could have felt more blessed this weekend. We live in a great nation. We are free to spend time with our loved ones, to worship, to own land, to participate in the decision making for our futures.