More 4th Fun

Here are some of Gigi's pictures from our 4th of July celebration.  Hallie would like for me to tell you that she took several of these shots.  :)

We played a little cornhole before the rain got to Northport.

And then the rain arrived just in time to spoil our sparkler fun.  So we opened the garage door and violated every fire code on the books...

Until it got too smoky to breathe, at which point the kids abandoned the garage and played in the rain.  They giggled nonstop the whole time.

Our Little Graduate

Here are the two graduation videos as promised. 

 Sister was serious about her hand motions--even though she had a cast all the way up one arm. I tried to tell her everyone would understand if she just did them with one hand, but she was having none of that! First, to make you smile...

   

 And now the sweet one...

 

Summer Update, Part Deux

This baby girl's 5th birthday is today! 

Which means I need to clean off my camera card in preparation for her makeover birthday party this weekend.  'Cause if that's not a good reason for major picture-taking I don't know what is!

So, here is that same girlie graduating from Pre-K a couple of months ago.  I'm going to post a couple of videos from the program in a bit, one of which makes me laugh and the other makes me a big puddle of goo.  And for those of you who can't get enough Sara-graduation-cuteness (here's looking at you, Gigi), I have a whole lot more videos than your average blog-reader cares to see.  Ask to view them when you have a while!

Getting her "diploma" from Miss Diana.

Nana and Papa came down for graduation!

Sara gave her teachers orchids to thank them for a great year of preschool.

With Miss Tammy and Miss Diana...

The very next day was Hallie's 6th birthday!  I've already posted pictures from her friend-party, but here are a few from the official Birthday Morning doughnut breakfast on the Birthday Plate, our little family tradition.

The last gift she opened was a bike helmet.  So we went on a search for the bike that could go with it...

Which was hidden in Mommy's closet.

Which, as it turns out, is not a scenic spot for a photo shoot.  I believe I'll hide gifts elsewhere from now on...

We left that same day for the beach.  I have posted my iPhone pictures from our annual beach trip with the Heads, but I have a few on my camera as well.  One morning of the trip we went to the pavillion at Seaside to attempt some family photos and then eat lunch at Bud & Alley's.  Not sure any of our photos are prize-winners, but a few of them are pretty cute nonetheless.

The Sunday after we got home from the beach, Jake was baptized at AVPC!  Obviously we couldn't miss that.  Steve Whitner did a great job with the baptism, and Jake was his charming self.

I mean, really.  How cute is he?

This month, we got to host the Manlys and Dawsons for the 4th of July.  It was a rainy 4th, so we didn't get to do a lot of swimming as planned, but we ate some barbecue, watched (some of) 1776, and called it a success.  I'm going to post Gigi's pics from this get-together as well.

Even the kids' table was a little festive.  :)

Melissa, Austin, A.J., and Uncle Ted spent the night with us, so our remaining group headed to the pool the next morning.

Hallie is very into self-portraits these days...

"Helping" A.J.  He's so lucky to have such...helpful...older cousins!

You can never be too safe in the water...

These two always have a project going.

Sunbathing.

A little more self-photography.

Including her snaggletoothedness.

This morning, we had our Birthday Doughnut Breakfast for Sara Bee, and she opened a few gifts.

She got a big-girl backpack, since she'll be going to big school in the fall (!!!).

So Hallie went and got her matching one so they could pose together, of course.

I think, with the exception of some of Gigi's photos and a couple of graduation videos, that brings us up to date!  Woohoo!