Our Holiday Weekend:

So here we go with the 4th of July weekend post:

Friday we met up with several of Paul's family members for an old fashioned tailgating party on a local mall parking lot. We had a ton of food, did a lot of visiting, and had a prime spot to view the fireworks the city puts on. This was Avery's first time seeing fireworks and she was amazed!!! She sat in my lap just clapping and yelling...for the first 5-10 minutes at least. After that she was done, could have cared less.

We did not get too many pics from that night because we were too busy socializing

Our little family ready to celebrate the 4th!!!

I tried out a new hairstyle on Avery tonight and I personally think it is too cute! I love this picture of her with her daddy!

We stopped by my mom and dad's on our way out to show off Avery's holiday outfit and my parents informed us that Avery was in awe while watching "Blues Clues", just to prove their point they turned it on while we were there and this is the immediate look Avery assumed from the very beginning.

While waiting for the firework show Avery decided to take a little stroll with daddy and poppy.

Saturday was our annual "Around the 4th Party". Paul and I have been hosting this gathering for about the last 10 years. We always schedule it around the holiday so it doesn't interfere with family plans. We invite our friends over for swimming, grilling, and fireworks. This year we even got adventurous and also bought a "slip n slide". That was a ton of fun in itself. We had a great turnout and hopefully everyone had a great time. Thanks to my mom and dad for again opening their pool and home so we could have this gathering!!

Some of our guest sitting on the deck around the 2 completely full tables of food!!

Little Miss Aubriana sitting pretty in her hippo float.

Mollianne is a regular fish in the water.

Quint got his first taste of potato salad and I think it was a big hit!

Christie, Anton, and Quint sampling the "country life"!

Paul testing out the slip and slide while Tyler stood by to observe.

Erin and Mollianne hanging in the pool!

Yes, I just had to give the slip and slide a try!! I think it's very brave of me to post this picture in all my bathing suit glory, but hey, you only live once!

Did we have more people or more floaties in the pool at any given time?

Paul and Avery soakin' up the sun!

Our little mini posse (minus a few). Getting everyone to look at the camera at the same time was a major obstacle.

Avery even got her chance on the slip n slide.

Kelby (whose idea it was to get the slip n slide) shows us how it's done!

Bob and Erin, aren't they a cute couple?

After the sun went down the kids were all thrilled to do their own sparklers and then it was the great firework show of 2008! I think we picked out some good ones this year!

So that wraps up this years party. Who knows what next years party will bring!?!