Fireworks Party

Last night we continued our annual Fourth of July tradition. This was our fifth year celebrating with wonderful friends.

While the adults enjoyed delicious food and drinks, the kids ran around inside and outside of Michele's house.  We had to make our kids sit down and eat dinner.  There were 19 kids there last night (one was missing from the photo shoot).

Michele once again bribed the kids with bomb pops.

Barry had plenty of sparklers and other fireworks.

Mike was busy lighting all the sparklers.

Josiah got in on the action this year.

You can see one of the bigger fireworks behind Lydia and Wesley.  I love this picture.

This is another favorite of mine.

Here is a picture of Chris and me as we waited for the Falls Church City fireworks.

The city had a thirty minute firework display.  During this time, the boys (and some of the girls) were having light-up light saber battles as the fireworks went off in the background.  It was pretty cool to watch.

Near the end of the fireworks, Wesley went inside and came back with a slice of pie - twice!  He had a plate but no fork -either time.

After the fireworks, we went back inside and had a wonderful dessert that one of the neighbors brought over.  It was an Australian Pavlova with fresh berries.

Our kids went to bed at 10:30 last night.  It was such a fun party.

Forth of July Bike Parade

Today, our neighborhood had its first every Forth of July parade and party.

Families came with decorated bikes, scooters, wagons, and strollers.

Josiah has moved up to riding his own (blue) balance bike.  Lydia is still riding a hand-me-down bike from Wesley.

There were crafts, cookies, muffins, and cupcakes.

The kids also had popsicles.

It was a fun party and hopefully the start of a new neighborhood tradition.

Lollipop Race

Tonight, Josiah swam in his first swim meet. He swam in the lollipop race. Here he is waiting to go.

There he goes with his backpack.  Each lollipop swimmer has a big kid swim with them.

Josiah sometimes swims laps with his backpack with the eight and under swimmers.

After the lollipop race, he got a Twizzler instead of a lollipop.

Here is Lydia getting ready to swim backstroke.  I think she got second.  She swam in freestyle and backstroke.

Wesley only swam freestyle. He got first place in backstroke on Saturday so he couldn't swim that stroke in a B meet tonight.  His coach said said he could try breast stroke or butter fly but that he would be disqualified for not being able to do the stroke correctly. So, we were able to leave the tri-meet a little earlier.

I am loving the swim team experience.  I don't think Chris likes it half as much as I do.  Thankfully, the kids like it.  But, maybe not as much as I do.

Biking at Burke Lake

On Monday, I took the kids to Burke Lake. This was Lydia's first time riding her bike around the lake. Wesley has been biking around the lake for a while now.  Lydia did great (except for that time she was looking at some boaters and hit a tree).

The kids insisted on stopping and talking with this very nice fisherman.  He was very patient with all their questions.

Wesley and Lydia had to stop a few times and wait on me.

I bribed Josiah to ride in the stroller by promising him a train ride.

We also rode the carousel.

The kids loved the carousel, of course.

After this, they played on the playground.

That afternoon, the kids had swim team practice.  I was so tired at dinner, but the kids still had plenty of energy.

Here is an unrelated item: I left my workout equipment out one day and Wesley made a workout man with it.

Church Camp

Last week Chris took Wesley to church camp for the second year in a row.

Wesley quickly found a crayfish.  The kid is obsessed with animals.

Here is a picture of Lake Chilly Water and the slide the boys did. That's Wesley and Jacob walking.

Wesley and Jacob in the water.

Wesley found a little turtle outside their cabin.

He also found a little lizard that he carried around for two hours until Chris convinced him to let the little guy go.

They did different activities this year than what they did last year.  Here Wesley is getting suited up for the big swing.

Ready to go at the top.

Here is the video of the slide.  I think I might have chickened out like some of the other boys did.

They have to bring over the stairs to get the boys down.

The boys also did cool craft projects.  Wesley painted a ring catcher.

They hiked to The Little Water Fall.

The first time Chris went to Camp McCall, he was seven years old.  He slipped on the rocks and busted his chin and had to get stitches.  Thankfully, everyone was safe on this trip.

Despite the cold, look how happy Wesley is.  When I look at all the photos from Camp McCall, what strikes me is that Wesley looks so incredibly happy in all of them.

Wesley made a ping pong ball catapult.

The boys did canoe sinking.

We don't have any pictures or videos of the canoe sinking because Chris and Stephen took the opportunity to do The Drainpipe.  The camp doesn't allow the little kids to do it because the pipe shoots you out at 30 mph. Here is a video of Stephen going down the Drainpipe.
Chris and Wesley went canoeing.

Chris and Wesley before chapel one night.

Wesley with one of the counselors for their cabin.

The group from the church Chris grew up in.  Stephen took this picture.

I think Lydia was more than a little jealous when she saw all the fun activities on the camp video.

Camping with Cicadas

On Saturday, Chris and Wesley went camping with Wesley's cub scout pack.  The boys in his den tried to "mine" this dirt with sticks.

I am sure Wesley really enjoyed this.  He got extremely dirty.

Wesley, his  leader, and three of the other four boys in his den.

One thing that totally makes me laugh is the fact that the pack had dinner catered by Famous Dave's BBQ.  I keep teasing Chris that this would only happen in Northern Virginia.  The dens did cook their own breakfasts on Sunday morning.

The highlight of the camp out for Wesley was the cicadas.  We aren't supposed to see this brood of cicadas near our house.  We last saw a large brood of cicadas in 2004 inside the beltway.

They are rather cool looking.

Wesley spent a lot of time collecting cicadas.

The other boys were also interested in them.

Wesley took two cicadas to school with him today.  Thankfully, the teachers and kids enjoyed seeing them.