the essence

Fabulous Fourth!


Friday we left our house, picked up Ray from work & headed straight to Orlando - I figure a lot of people must've taken the day off of work because there was hardly any traffic!

Saturday was the Winter Park annual Fourth of July celebration. My family & I have been going since I was a kid - there's a stage with live music & entertainment, kids activities, old cars, the Morse Museum is free & there is usually as many free hot dogs, chips, soda & watermelon that you want! This year they had everything but the free food - it's amazing how much smaller the crowd was without the free food being offered!



My parents stayed home while Ray & I took the kids; while there we ran into Renee & Eva as well as Melissa & the boys.

The girls had so much fun dancing to the music!



By the time we got back to my parents house we were exhausted & hungry - and Sarah & Ethan were there! They both ended up spontaneously staying the night & so did Megan. Quite the fun slumber party! It was great having Ethan there, it really helped Addison to have someone else to play with.

All of us girls went out for coffee, Clay met & was snuggled by lots of people, the kids had pool time and the Sherwoods all stopped by in the afternoon! It was quite the busy and fun weekend.

Coffee time! It's what we do...



Caught in the act! Adding more caramel to my drink...aka diabetes in a cup



I love a full house!





The morning of the fourth started off with donuts & the kids receiving special necklaces & sunglasses & my mom setting off confetti in the house.





Melissa and Gregory stopped by for a little visit in the morning, Sarah & Ethan headed home, Matthew came over, the girls decorated cookies & we had a cookout in the afternoon. We got a bit of rain later in the day so the kids (& Megan) took the opportunity to play in the rain. Sometimes it's nice when the storms don't come with lightening & thunder - I loved playing in the rain as a kid!







Come nightfall we set off some of the fireworks my parents had bought. We'd planned to go home that night but opted instead to leave in the morning so we could just put the kids straight to bed after the fireworks. I'll totally admit, it was also really nice to have the extra help with the girls for a little longer!