Find Your Happiness

We took a break from house hunting last year and watched the July 4th festivities in DC. All the offices were closed for the holidays anyway. And we were in Washington, DC during 4th of July! (When in Rome, er, DC!) Unfortunately, I am just now getting around to posting these because life happens.  We watched the  mother of all Independence Day parade . It was hot, humid, and crowded but it was an experience to remember. The parade is a mile long and goes from 7th to 17th St of Constitution Avenue. We decided to watch it across the National History of American Museum. And we were crazy tourists because we watched the entire parade (more than two hours long!) We  also took the metro because we were not about to fight the traffic. It was the kids first time and they absolutely loved riding the "train." After lunch, we went back to the hotel in Bethesda to rest before heading back out. We rode the metro again to Virginia...

The kids and I are obviously in Indiana for our annual visit. We spent 4th of July at my sister's house since baby Lucy --my newest niece--was only a week old. My sister's in laws also came to celebrate with us. And as always, the day was filled with tons of laughter from the kids and food for the adults. In the evening, we went back to Mom's house to watch the neighborhood's fireworks. Amelia and I didn't stay out to watch the whole thing because she kept wanting to walk near it and also kept tripping on the concrete floor. Hopefully next year, Hubs won't be gone for what would be the third Independence Day in a row and we will get to enjoy the holiday as a family of four. Or at least help me keep an eye out on the kids near the fireworks!

My mom's neighbors graciously shared their sparklers for 4th of July. Isabel and Nathaniel loved lighting them. Unfortunately, Daniel missed all the fun because he refused to nap earlier so he ended up falling asleep super early. Anyway, I especially love the bottom photo. It makes it look as though Nathaniel is holding a wand and casting the "Lumos" spell from Harry Potter.

We watched the fireworks show presented by Fort Gordon last Wednesday evening. I stupidly  forgot my tripod so my fireworks photos are squiggly because it is just physically impossible for me to hold very  still for the four-second shutter speed that I had my camera set on. We also sat waaaaaay too close to the fireworks (we didn't know!). We had to lay down to see the fireworks and they were exploding right on top of us. In fact, debris were falling on us and some were still on fire (none landed on us but the guy in front of us was unfortunate). So even with me laying down and my lens on its widest angle, I still couldn't capture the entire fireworks in the frame. I hoped to take better photos last night on another show but we stayed too long at a cookout with friends that we just caught the finale in the comfort of our front yard instead of going to the park. Nathaniel absolutely enjoyed the fireworks show and he kept saying, "Ooooh! Aaaahhh!" He al...

I decided to make these cake pops at the last minute to bring to the cook out with friends later this afternoon. They are not perfect but I find them very adorable! I wish I could say I came up with this on my own but it's actually an inspiration from this . And since it's a very last minute, I had to improvised with the stars since I couldn't find them anywhere. I'm sure the kids (and maybe even the adults!) will enjoy these---Nathaniel already had two cake pops since I started making them last night! Happy Fourth of July!