4th of July (um, 3rd actually)

Eating her oatmeal breakfast at The Red Barn, the morning of the 3rd. This pic captures the outcome of her first night in hair rollers. Half of them "fell out." ;)

Here's the before of our first night in rollers. ;)

Ready to have our picnic and see fireworks! She insisted on the pink sequin shoes. :)

My attempt at a wrap around braid - the curls from early in the day all fell out.

This light wand from her friend Jackson was perfect for the 4th!

Her reaction to seeing the first fireworks in the sky.

Fireworks at Liberty Park

Gotta have Bomb Pops on the 4th. Bomb Pops and flags.

Our city planned their fireworks for July 3rd, I'm guessing so as not to compete with the Nashville fireworks. Consequently, we began our festivities on the 3rd!

Our 4th celebration this year was simple, but probably needed to be since I am at risk of being put on bed rest if some of my symptoms don't subside in the next few days. Don't worry, I'm taking it easy! I promise!

We began our celebrating wearing our red, white and blue dress to The Red Barn on the 3rd. She loved the dress so much, she even insisted on wearing it to bed that night after fireworks. And she wanted to keep it on when she woke up the next morning since it was the 4th, for real.

I really made an effort to rest and take it easy while Anna Claire was at school, just like I promised my doc. We made sure to wait and pick her up after the ice cream man paid his weekly visit to The Red Barn, otherwise we would have heard about it!

We went home for a bit, then it was off to Rotary Park to have our family picnic. We picked Rotary because we knew we'd be battling crowds and traffic soon enough, and just needed somewhere to eat our yummy dinner of sandwiches, chips, cookies, and blackberries. Anna Claire loved our picnic! She is still talking about it. You forget how the simplest things bring so much joy to a child. Just eating outside, and listening to the birds and crickets and watching the trees blow in the wind.

After our picnic, we were off to Liberty Park for fireworks, only to find a flashing sign that said "Lot Full, Park at Jostens." Um, no. I'm 6 months pregnant people, on strict orders not to over-exert myself, with a 4 year old in tow. That just wasn't an option for us. Well, I was driving and had the idea that we could drive through the neighborhood opposite Liberty Park to scope out something closer. How blessed we were to find a lady charging $5 a car, allowing people to park and watch from her front yard. We were DIRECTLY in front of where the fireworks were being shot. We didn't have to walk anywhere. Just plopped our blanket down in front of our car and munched on our leftover picnic snacks. I think God heard my prayer that we needed a miracle so that a little girl could see fireworks, while keeping this baby cooking at the same time!

Anna Claire loved the fireworks at first, but tired out quickly since she didn't take a good nap at school and not to mention the fact 9:30 is way past her bedtime. She also said the fireworks were too loud.

The 4th of July itself isn't much to write about. It rained, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed. Larry's dad has a shooting buddy who invited us to return this year to have a ginormous picnic with his family on his farm, near a beautiful creek. I really wish I hadn't gotten Anna Claire's hopes up. She remembered going last year and was really looking forward to it. Can't do anything about rain though.

I do think she loved our picnic and the fireworks, and had a good 4th experience in spite of the disappointment. And there's always next year!