July 4th

It was a fun weekend. And like usual, the weekend flew by and it is already time to go back to work. Seems like I just got home from work. And even though the weekend had an extra day, it just vaporized in front of my eyes. I wish it were Friday again and I had just pulled into the driveway and had the entire weekend still in front of me. While I can't make the weekend magically reappear, the good news is that I have a new toy that can help! On top of an extra special weekend filled with family, friends, love, bbqs, fireworks and fun, I got to use my new camera this weekend and am posting all of these pics with an extra bounce in my 'type' (get it, not in my step, but in my type . . hee hee). Anyway, onto the weekend.

We hosted a surprise couples shower for Stacey and Bill this weekend and think that she was surprised (Bill was already aware). If Stacey did in fact, already know about the shower, she kept it to herself very nicely. Maybe someday she'll tell us for sure, but for the weekend, we were content in believing that we had surprised her and given them what turned out to be a lovely evening.



The exciting part of the shower was that her family was able to join us from all over the U.S. and this certainly appeared to be a surprise (if she knew anything, she deserves an acting award).

Ahhh . . nothing like a mother's hug!





And Uncle Bill, as usual, gets attacked by the little ones . . .



The shower was a lot of fun. The kids walked away with some fun toys . . .



and the "grown-ups" did too!



A special thank you to my brother-in-law who is the creative mind behind designing the shower invitations and the coordinating wine sleeves. Thanks TJ!

We enjoyed a fun game of "Family Feud" which created an interesting atmosphere of competition between the two families! I got a slight bit nervous before we started the game when I was told that Stacey's family can get very competitive and likes to WIN! Check out Stacey's mom thrilled with a correct answer!



The little ones (all 7 of them) enjoyed the shower as well (note that all 7 will be in the wedding together)! In fact, Drew told us several times today that Jake was his best friend . . .:)







The party continued at our house the following day with a 4th of July bbq. Since we're not brave enough to set off anything too crazy, we settled on a few sparklers for the little ones and this was dangerous enough . . .







and the mommies and daddies enjoyed a few mango margaritas.



The bbq was a lot fun and we enjoyed hosting Stacey's family. We're looking forward to the wedding and many fun years ahead!

As for Monday, well, me and my boys, we just sat back and enjoyed the day. Our day was everything a holiday should be. We played outside, we napped, we watched movies, we put a pool at the end of our slide to create our own waterslide, we colored, we ate ice cream. It was a great day.







Happy Birthday America. And to everyone else, goodnight!