4th of July

We went to a family reunion....Jeff's dad's side of the family.....on the 4th. It's always a big party when we get together with this part of the family because there are so many of us. Jeff's aunt and uncle who host the party always rent a great water slide for the kids. They also had a pinata for the younger kids. Carter was sad that he was one year over the age to hit the pinata, but they still let the bigger kids run in to get the candy once the pinata was broken.

I took the stuff to make homemade ice cream in Ziploc bags. I put the basic ingredients in each child's bag then gave the a choice of chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, or peanut butter to flavor it with. They just couldn't understand HOW they were going to get that milk to turn into ice cream in those bags. We put the ice and rock salt in the big bags and sealed the little bags inside of them. Then came the fun part...shaking the bags until the ingredients turned into ice cream! They were so excited to watch it happen and more excited to eat it! It was the perfect treat for such a HOT day. We almost didn't do fireworks at all since everything is so dry but decided to stop and get some small ones that the kids could light on the driveway. They missed the big ones but loved lighting all of the ones we got on their own. Afterwards, we took a blanket to the back yard and lay there watching the neighbors pop their big fireworks....I guess they weren't worried about the dry grass. We had fun watching until the mosquitoes got the best of us! Of course, the holiday wouldn't be complete without crafts and cookies! We are so fortunate to be a part of such a big, close family. At the end of this month, we will gather with Jeff's mom's side of the family, which is also very big and growing more every year. I love spending time with just Jeff and the kids, but I am appreciating more and more the joy of finding time to surround ourselves with the amazing family that we have been blessed with!