4th Of July Party on the 3rd

As we pulled in to Mari's subdivision we saw a momma deer with her two babies. They were our in front of these bushes . . . but when they saw us they walked into the woods.

Ray and Mari's house
Sierra immediately fell in love with their swing in the backyard!

The next few pictures got turned around. We actually ate lunch after we played tennis but I am too tired to rearrange the pictures.

Here is Nathan and Andrew walking through the woods on our way to have lunch at a restaurant called Choo Choo's.

After lunch we all walked home.Abigail and Sierra
We cut through this park.

The kids stopped to play for al little bit.
Tomorrow on the 4th . . .we will be having the First Annual Tennis Invitational for my side of the family. My cousin Mari and her girls took us over to the tennis courts by their house so we could all practice.Taylor
Travis
Michelle, Steph and Me
Taking a water break!
Daddy
Sierra

Landon
Nathan After lunch and tennis we headed to the mall for a little bit and then went home to get ready for the parade and the party. Each year before the parade they have a guys and a girl's mile run. All of our kids participated except for Travis and Ashley. Also, Nate and Sam went to a Cincinnati Reds game so they weren't here.

Here come the guys!

Here we are all on the side lines waiting for the kids to come down the hill to the finish line.We spotted Landon first . .. he did excellentHe finished with a time of 7 minutes 25 seconds!I had a picture of Taylor finishing but for some reason it didn't turn out.

Then the girls started arriving! Jamie was first . . . Then came Kaley

Then Shelby!

Then Sierra




Marika was sweet enough to walk with Abbey!

The the parade began!
The kids were all ready with the bags to grab the candy that would be thrown.

Waiting for the candy!

This truck didn't throw candy . . . but they threw
this cool bag of goodies of 3M products!

Uncle Sam


The Shriner's
This church gave out bottled water!

After the parade we headed back to Mari's for the 4th of July party and the fireworks! We had great food for dinner and then around 10 pm the fireworks began!
After the fireworks my sister Michelle who sells Lia Sophia jewelry had an open house for all the ladies at the party!
Here my sister's are teasing my mom . . . she can't stand it that we drink Diet Coke so they were joking around with her a little bit about that!Nathan and Sam arrived home from the Red's game. They were happy because the Red's finally won!!!!!!
Then at the end of the evening my aunt and uncle called our whole family into the family room. They surprised us and had t-shirts made for the whole family to wear tomorrow to the First Annual Tennis Invitational!

Thanks Uncle Jim and Aunt Diane for the t-shirts! What a wonderful memory for us a to take home from this great time together! We are all looking forward to the tennis tournament tomorrow!
Thanks Mari and Ray for one of the best 4th of July parties we have been too!