party of five: Good times with Family & Friends

The last two weekends have been jam-packed with such fun activities. On June 27th, my Mom hosted a mini-family reunion at her house and some of the Maryland gang joined us for some good food and great company! My cousin, Alison, had a baby boy, Adam, just 3 weeks after I had Noah. So, the main idea behind this cookout was Adam and Noah getting to play and see each other for the first time! I think they got along great...haha! I can't wait to see them grow up together and always have a buddy at every family get-together.

Me, my Mama and my sister, Vicki.

Such sweet boys! Adam and Noah.

Aunt Pat (my Dad's sister), my Dad, Mud (Christopher's friend), my nephew, Chris and my cousin, Joey.

Aunt Pat, my cousin, Alison, Vicki, my cousins, Sierra and Taylor.

Some of the girl cousins and Aunt Pat.

Sienna and Vicki

This past weekend, we celebrated America's 234th (I hope that's right...) birthday at Lake Anna! On Saturday, we headed down to the Opitz's lake house where they graciously host us and all of our friends and families for the WHOLE holiday weekend. They really have spoiled us over the last few years with great food, a great house, a beachy area for the kids, a firepit, many boat trips, floats in the water...gosh and the list could go on and on. I feel so blessed to have Peggy and Karl in our lives - they are so special to us and the kids (and US) will have such great memories of these trips!

So Saturday the kids had a blast playing all day in the sand and in the shallow area of the lake. They filled up buckets, dug, dumped water, pretended to swim, took some accidental gulps of lake water for hours and could not have been happier. Even Noah enjoyed his time in the shade and his time in the raft on the water! After the delicious fajita dinner, we dressed the kids for bed and headed back home. On Sunday, we did it all over again, except this time...without the kids! Barbara and Kenny kept the kids for us from about 9am to 730pm on Sunday, so we could head back to the lake and spend the day with our friends, just relaxing! It.Was.Amazing. It's been 5 years since we'd been to the lake sans children and boy, was it fun. Of course the kids are so fun to hang out with and experiencing all the joy of the water and fun through their eyes is amazing, but I'm so glad we were able to do this this year. Scott and I vegged all day and our biggest worry was when we needed to re-apply sunscreen. :) We headed back to Ashburn just before dinner and got the kids home just in time to enjoy some sparklers. (Btw, Hudson is NOT ready for this activity...shocker. He tried to grab the actual sparkler, lit.) We also kept Sienna up wayyyy past her bedtime just so she can enjoy the fireworks show from her own bedroom window! We opened the window and get this...saw 6 different firework shows! It was pretty incredible and all 3 of us ooohhh'd and aaaahhh'd for a bit. :) Such a GREAT holiday weekend....dare I say, one of the best?!