4th of July Weekend

We had a super busy 4th of July weekend.  Saturday started off with Eli going to a birthday party for a friend from school.  The boy's parents picked him up and dropped him off at our house so we didn't have to hang around and pretend like we were having fun!  It was Eli's 1st "real" playdate!

Then, later Saturday, we went up to NH (where fireworks are legal...unlike MA), to Dave's cousin Cathy & her husband, Todd's house. He & his neighbor go all out and blow all kinds of stuff up and it's always fun to watch. There's also a pre-game party at the neighbor's house where we hung out beforehand...

Eli in the salt water pool...lovin' the life!!!

Nate-Ben-Sam
chillin' on the freshly manicured lawn

Nate-Sam-Ben
Getting ready for the show

Renee-Eli (hands over ears)
Nate-Sam-Ben
during an intermission

 Then Sunday we headed up to my dad's cottage in NH for some beach and campfire time.  The only problem was all week the weather was supposed to be in the 90's and gross...then Sunday morning the weather changed to 70's and rainy...fun...We made the best of it!  I was determined to get the boys in the lake and get my S'Mores on!!!

Sammy's not so sure

Ben could get used to this

Nate just loves the sand between his teeth

Nate-Sam-Ben
The  biggest problem was keeping them from eating sand...or rocks...or who know what...I didn't have enough hands to keep their hands out of their mouths...It was probably very funny to watch...



To prevent them from snacking on any more sand, we put them in their floaties.
Eli is with Nate & some crazy lady is with Ben & Sam.
Nate loved his floaty.
Ben had enough pretty quickly.
Sam kept trying to crawl out of his.



Eli & Dave on the raft

The babies' first camp fire...
Sam-Ben-Nate-Eli

Eli's first marshmallow of 2011

 Then Monday we headed out to the parade.  We staked our claim the night before and put our chairs in place.  Note to self:  put chairs out in the daylight so you can see where the shade is...We put ours out at night and were in full sun the whole time.  We brought a spray bottle of water to keep everybody cool.  Here are the boys wearing the firecracker headbands we (me & Eli) made.

Ben-Sam-Eli-Nate

 Later that afternoon we took a group shot...or at least attempted it...

Dave w/ Nate
Renee w/ Sam
Eli w/Ben

We then thought it might be fun to try out the babies in Eli's pool.
Eli-Sam-Ben-Nate
It was a blast until...
we heard a rumbling in the distance...
which brought on crazy thunderstorms.

  Once it was over...this is what Dave saw...right over our house (on the left)...

And in the process of all this craziness, somebody decided to cut 2 new teeth on the top...

Mr. Ben
a.k.a.  Toothy McGee

 Today we went to a free kids show for Curious Creatures downtown at Boarding House Park...I let the babies out long enough to take this shot and then had to put them back because they were having too much fun eating the grass...

Ben-Eli-Sam-Nate