Let Freedom Ring, Let the White Dove Sing

I love that song.  Martina can do no wrong. 

Ya'll this was a busy weekend.  The weather was crap, but we made the most of it.  Please excuse most of these pictures.  There were few moments where the weather cooperated enough for me to pull out the "good" camera.  Also, remember that I said my parents are in town?  So, that means I'm spending my evenings hanging out and enjoying their company instead of editing pictures and making cute collages.  It truly sucks for you, but hey, I'm enjoying it! 

Here's the weekend in pictures.

This was taken on Friday morning before school.  The girls are dressed in their red, white, and blue, for their school's 4th of July celebration.  They are looking at a huge egret across the street.  I love how Cam is standing with one hip cocked to the side and Chloe is right next to her like her best friend. 

This was taken the same morning.  I cropped and adjusted the gray scale. 

Love the expression on her face, and her wispy hairs.  Cute.

On Saturday, we went to a pool party at the Stiff's House.  Chloe and Abby are sitting on the ledge together.  I didn't bring Chloe's swimsuit and as soon as she saw all of the kids in the pool she wanted in.  So, we borrowed Sawyer's swim shirt and a swimmie diaper and she had a blast.  She looks like a boy, but who cares!

And then there were fireworks Stiff Style, which basically means there were a ton of them and they were fantastic!  Here Cam and Madie watch in awe.  Now, it was pretty dark out, and I had to bump the ISO all the way up.  This was taken without a flash.

Becky took this shot of Cam with her camera.  Love that she is making the letter "C" for Cam.  Of course, from Cam's perspective, she wrote it backward.  We have to work on that.

Now it's the 4th of July.  I have some cute pics I wanted to share from my pocket camera, but didn't get them on the computer last night.  We started the day by going to church.  They did a sermon just for the children and had tiny, child sized chairs set up right in front of the stage.  Cam loved it, and she sat and listened and now she'll probably never want to go to her Sunday School class again.  But, it was fun and I was so proud of her for doing what she was supposed to do.

Then, we braved the rain and went to McD's.  Chris crawled up in the playland slide with the Chloe.  He's 6'4", it was hilarious to watch all of him squeeze through those tiny tunnels and the whole thing only swayed slightly.  Those pics are fun.  I'll post them here, later. 

The Hubs doing anything for his little girl

And then they emerge from teh slide together, and she is one happy little girl!

Then, we went to a birthday party on the beach.  It was overcast and the skies were threatening, it rained a little but not bad.  The weather was cool, which was perfect.  I have a few pictures of Chloe playing in the sand. I'll post those here...Later. We enjoyed good food, and good company and then we came home and showered up for the fireworks. 

Chloe ate about a pound of sand, but she never once said it tasted bad

After Chloe's bath.  She's dressed and ready for the main event.

This was the only picture I took of the girls together in their coordinating 4th of July outfits.  And, it sucks  because I can't take good pictures indoors, they all look yellow.  Truthfully, the lighting in this room is horrendous.  But, it's where the kids always are....I'll figure it out one day. 

And, then we met up with friends and walked down to the water to view the fireworks display. 

Our family is on the left.  Notice that my buggy is the only one with beer in it....

Thanks for taking this picture, Toni!

And then my girlfriend, Toni, went to take this picture of Sophie and Cam rushed up and jumped in.  Because the kid loves a camera, and Sophie. 

And, then we got down to the water, and Cam sat on the seawall, which makes me nervous, but she sat there while I tinkered with my settings, and took this picture.  It was taken 10 minutes after the pics above...it was dark...really dark.  I bumped up the ISO, didn't use a flash, and somehow was able to see the image.  That in itself is amazing, SOOC.  This was the last picture I took of the evening.

And then we watched the fireworks, Cam peed in some bushes, and we went home.  The girls were tucked in their beds by 10:15 and everyone slept in until 9:15 on Monday morning.  I can't remember the last time the kids slept past 7 am.  Amen!

And, today, it looks like the skies are clearing a little bit, and hopefully, we'll see the sun a little this week.  I have some fantastic pics to share this week, including the building of a birdhouse, and a trip to the Botanical Gardens, which was smashed into this weekend with the rest of the events listed above.  I told ya we were busy!

Happy Monday Tuesday!