Happy Late 4th

What a great weekend!
It was a combined 4th and Birthday weekend. 2 of my brothers share the same birthday on June 30th and my Birthday is July 8th, so we usually have supper together at some point in between. Since the 4th landed on a Sunday this year it seemed like a good day for a party! In my family there are always so many people around it usually feels like a party and really can turn into one pretty quickly! We didn't have anything huge planned, but it was so fun to have EVERYONE together! With my parents, all 9 kids, plus spouses, grandchildren and  few extra friends, we had 32 people (to the best of my memory :o) ). You can see a picture of most of us together at my parents' blog HERE. And read about their adoption journey.
It was a beautiful day in July for SC! I don't ever remember not melting outside on the 4th, but it was very pleasant I thought. We had  good food and lots of dessert! Also some presents, which are always my favorite :o)
Here's my wavy flag cake.

 I only have one not-that-great picture of the 3 Birthday people.

Tim 1 (my oldest brother) 35, me 25, and J.D. (brother right after me) 23.

I love this picture of Samuel!

Caleb on Hope's shoulders.

But the biggest hit was the piñata!!! The kids (big and small) had a blast!

As you can see, everyone really gave it their all.

Here's my Dad giving instructions before we begin :o)

Samuel's getting dizzy.

Andrew's turn (new youngest brother).

Dad never makes it easy :o)

Pasha (#7 from oldest to youngest).

Aaron (nephew).

Conner (nephew).

Meg, my newest sister-in-law.

Ja (brother-in-law).

He looked like he was pretending to be a jedi knight with that stick :o)

And he will probably hate me for saying that!!!

We didn't stay for the fireworks because that is NOT Josiah's favorite part! We held him a lot over the weekend once it was dark outside :o( He was very brave.
Tim was off work Monday too, so we got tons done around here! I love when you feel like you actually get things accomplished. And the boys loved having Tim for the whole day! It was a weekend full of fun!!!