4th of July Fun

We arrived in Ohio late on the evening of Tuesday, July 2nd. On Wednesday morning some of the girls headed off bright and early to pick raspberries. It was a beautiful morning and it was nice to be together again.

Ali and Andie hard at work.

Happy Robin.

I like how Pepper matches the fruit.

My crop.

Robin had jam in mind.

The Instagram filters really do bring new life to the pictures.

Back at home and hanging out while waiting for the adults to run some errands.
The little kids started entertaining me with scary stories.

And Hazel entertained herself with a flashlight and sitting in the dog's bed.

Robin and family decided that we should all tie-dye t-shirts for the 4th of July and wear them together. We, of course, did not read all the instructions first but got straight to work making a huge mess and eventually enjoying ourselves. It helped once the little ones went to bed and we started wetting the shirts.

Robin getting fancy with the paint brush.

Like-mother, like-daughter!

Cody arrived around dinnertime on the 3rd.
We were very, very happy to see this face again!!

The next morning I rushed out to the tied up shirts and unwrapped and untied them before I read the instructions...typical me I'm afraid. Then I read that they needed to be rinsed, preferably still tied and then washed in hot water and dried. I decided I better take some pictures before I rinsed and washed them just in case.

The shirts I made for Pepper and Hazel.

Morgan and Cody worked hard on this shirt for Morgan.
I thought it looked like the Jamaican flag.

My shirt.

Cody's red, white and blue shirt that kind of looks like fireworks.

Ali's patriotic creation with Andie's and Antonio's.

Hazel's was by far the brightest and my favorite.
Helps when you have less material to cover and it was an old onesie that had already been washed.

Hazel doesn't walk much when she gets around all her older cousins.

Someone was quite proud of their shirt!

Robin really loved her shirt, maybe not me taking a picture of her though.

This one!

The boys enjoying their lunch while waiting for Khan, Joanna and William to arrive.

Khan and family finally arrived around 2. It was a rainy day so the guys decided to take all the kids to see Despicable Me 2. 

Our wild and crazy crew.

Joanna, Robin and I stayed home with a sleeping Hazel and worked on dinner and other goodies. After the movie and Hazel woke up we started our 4th celebrations.

Pepper made Chip do Tick-Tock with her almost the moment he arrived.

Hazel discovered hummus and was a very happy girl with her new dipping sauce.

I'm not sure if she actually ate any veggies with the hummus but at least she was happy.

Khan brought a water balloon launcher and man o man did we have a good time.

Caught that water balloon in the act!

All the kids had a great time with this.

Morgan turned out to be one of the best launchers of the evening.
His balloons went over the tallest and farthest trees.

Teenagers!

This little one ran all over the place chasing the dog and trying to get balloons.
She was filthy and wet and very, very happy.

Everyone finally started making balloons for her.

I asked Chip to take a group photo for me with my phone.

Oh well, blurry is better than nothing.

Always happy to hang out with this lady!

Cupcake time, because that is what this filthy little baby needs!

It sprinkled rain on and off all day and we were hoping it would hold off for our fireworks show from Khan.

We managed to get off a few parachute fireworks and sparklers before the downpour hit. No fireworks for us this year. Boo!

Hazel enjoying her tunes on my phone.

We love Ali!

We are so, so lucky to have family so close that we can enjoy all these moments together! We ended up cutting the weekend short and heading home on Friday because we were all just exhausted and everyone else had other activities to get to. It was so nice to be all together again and so nice to get home as well!