4th of July

We celebrated the 4th as usual this year with a trip out to Latrobe for the parade and then a cookout and swim at my mom's house.  It was ridiculously hot, even for July.  So hot, that we didn't make it through the whole parade.  Even with plenty of water and snacks, we watched until Aunt Jeannie went by in Goldilocks and then packed it up to head back for the pool.

Even at the parade, the boy had to have reading material :-)

Back at mom's we enjoyed tons of food- Italian roast beef, ham barbeque, fruit salad, taco salad, baked beans and buffalo chicken dip.  Plus desserts.  So much yummy food.


After eating, it was time for some swimming.

With Papa.

With Aunt Jeannie.

And on our own.

And Sadie got some special time as Grandmas worked on teaching her how to float.  It was fun to watch and reminded me of when she tried to teach me.

Thunder and storms chased us out of the pool and into the house.  Then it was time to head home.  Once again, we debated trying to watch the fireworks in Pittsburgh but the little girl passed out in the car so we went straight home.  Daddy carried the little girl up to bed and she didn't even stir.

Caleb got to enjoy some video games before he went off to bed.

Andy and I sat down to watch the fireworks on TV and then they started going off behind us.  Apparently we have a very generous neighbor who loves to put on his own display.  These are big fireworks- not just bottle rockets and sparklers.  We watched them last year and once again, they started up practically in our backyard.

I ran upstairs and grabbed Caleb.  We went out in the driveway and enjoyed the show.  Our neighbors invited us to sit up on their deck.  Caleb loved it.  Waving his hands with each explosion.  He was conducting the show.  And during breaks, he would look up in the sky and trying to find Polaris.  After several planetarium shows, he's really been enjoying the night sky and finding constellations.

It was a really nice day and once again, I had to sit back and just feel blessed.

catching up- Sadie's Ballet

This year, Sadie's end of semester performance was Peter and the Wolf.  The girls in her class got to pick between being a cat, a bird or a duck.  As you can see, our Sadie chose the cat.  She loved practicing pas-de-chat (the cat step) all around the house and she looked adorable in her little outfit.  I was a little worried that she might pretend to be shy (as she sometimes does when she's expected to perform) but she did beautifully!  We were so proud of her.

This is one of my favorite shots-  giving a Daddy a hug after her performance.

 She'll be taking the summer off but will get to go to Cinderella camp that is being offer by PBT.  The Pittsburgh ballet will be performing Cinderella next spring and have offered this special camp.  She's really excited for it but also reminds me that she doesn't want to wear a sticky bun for camp.

It's been so wonderful to watch her grow.  She really enjoys this and does so well.  I can't help but dream of watching her perform on stage someday.  We'll have to just wait and see what happens.

Here's a video clip of her work.  She's the little 'rina on the left.