4th of July Celebration!!

First...We thought it would be fun to invite our family over for a BBQ on the evening of the 4th of July...Then we decided we couldn't have a fourth of July party without fireworks so we told them to plan on staying late for that... and then we figured if everyone was going to stick around until dark for fireworks we might as well build a fire and have smores for dessert... and if we were going to have smores we might as well be camping, so we told everyone to bring their tents for a "camp out"...and you can't have a "camp out" without a pancake breakfast right?.... SO...(sounds a bit like the children's book If you give a moose a muffin right??) to make a long story short... we kept adding on to the festivities and it was just right! We had the best fourth of July ever!!

everyone brought delicious food which included BBQ ribs, homemade rolls, dutch oven potatoes, jello, pasta, and green salads, watermelon and homemade root beer!!

My "family" can be a bit confusing... If you already know the dynamics just skip over this next part, but for those of you who don't know... here goes...

My brother and his family live here. My sisters are both far far away :(
so when I say "Family" this is who I'm talking about...
My mom has 5 siblings (and her parents) who all live in the Logan area.(Cache Valley) My moms youngest brothers and their wives are within 5 years in age to Glen and I and four of my moms siblings (my aunts and uncles) have children (my cousins) who are as young as my boys... does that make sense?? So when we say we have lots of cousins here in Cache Valley that my boys love to play with... it's really my cousins, not theirs... Anyway... it's kind of confusing and different than most families and thats not even getting into my older cousins who are closer to my age and my dad's side of the family (he has seven siblings, and most of them live here in Cache valley too!) Don't worry there are not so many of us that we have accidently ( or intentionally) married each other or anything weird like that :)... although I did go on a date once with my second cousin and we didn't know it until half way through the date when we figured it out... creepy thing was he still tried to kiss me at the door step??? Hmm... but that's a whole different post :)... anyway I actually feel really lucky that we live so close to all of our extended family. Friends are wonderful but there is no one like family when it comes to love and example and friendship!! It's a blessing to have so many amazing people around who love my kids who I can learn from and count on anytime!! So... there is a bit of an explaination for those of you wondering who all of this "family" is that we hang out with, hope it helps a little....

the family picnic...

our annual 4th of July flag cake

Eli and Evan...
(Gabe was not in the mood for pictures
as you can tell by the look on his face in the first photo at the top of this post!)

some of the kids decorating 4th of July cupcakes

left to right :Jeffrey, Tristin, Coleman, Nathan, Sadie, Aidan, Jonah, and Evan

before it got too dark we set up the tents in the backyard

then we roasted marshmallow's and made smores

Evan and Sadie

The kids played night games!!

Then we all watched a GREAT fireworks show in the driveway.
my favorite are those UFO humming, jumping colorful ones! We even had a grand finale!! Thanks to Glen, my uncle Cory and Josh... the pyro's

Everyone got ready for bed and just as we were about to say "lights out" some of the kids needed a midnight snack!! Anyone who has ever stayed at our house or who has had us as guests knows that I am a sucker for kids who say "I'm hungry" before bedtime! They can't go to bed with an empty tummy, that's just mean... so yes, my kids have me figured out and pretty much every night (Glen has given up fighting it- love you baby!!) my boys have a big bowl of cereal, but only if they ate all of their dinner, that's the deal! anyway so they said "we're hungry" and here they are filling their little tummies and we all slept better!

the next morning the kids woke with the birds and the sunrise at 5 AM!!! and didn't bother to let the rest of us keep sleeping!!!
those who didn't stay overnight came back around 8 AM and we had a smorgasbord
pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit and orange juice!
It was delicious and one of the best fourth of July celebrations ever! I hope everyone forgets about the 5 AM thing :) and plans to join us next year!!