Happy Fourth! (Two Weeks Later!)

Sorry about my long absence from the blog, but a couple of big projects have been keeping me so busy I haven't had time to think straight, much less update the blog! But I think things are finally winding down, and I'm getting caught back up.

And while I'm on the subject, please, pretty please, click here to vote for the Miracle League of Milwaukee in the Pepsi Refresh Project. This is one of my projects: As most of you know, I've been doing all the design work for this organization, including their website and Facebook page. We were recently nominated by the Milwaukee Brewers to compete for a $200,000 Pepsi Refresh grant, which is exciting, but it has also meant a lot of extra work for me. But we would love to get the $200,000, so please don't forget to vote 10 times per day. Thank you!

Anyway. Where was I? Oh yes, way back to Fourth of July (which, at this point, seems like a thousand years ago).

We had a very nice Fourth. Since we had already gotten the local Fourth of July celebration out of the way the previous weekend, we had a relaxing day, and eventually headed to Tom and Mary's for a cookout. Karina and Elsa enjoyed a patriotic cream puff after dinner.

After the cookout, we had an impromptu (and small) get-together at our house. We have a pretty good view of not one but two very nice fireworks displays from the golf course behind our house, so we had Lisa, Quentin, Tom, Tanya, Karina and Tommy all over to watch. I don't know why it never occurred to me before to have people over on the Fourth, but I think it was definitely nicer for the kids than sitting through a long, boring wait in a big crowd of people for a traditional fireworks display.

After the fireworks, we had a fire in our fire pit and made smores.

You would think that would be more than enough in one day for our little Elsa, who normally goes to bed at 7:30 p.m. But no, the night wasn't over for her yet! Her and Bob camped out in the tent in the back yard that night, too!

She looked so grown-up and adorable heading out to the tent with Bob and the flashlight. Since Claire had been in bed for hours by then, I went out and briefly sat in the tent with them, and it was so cozy and fun, I almost wished I could camp out there with them. Almost.

Elsa loves this picture of herself with the flashlight. She laughs every time she sees it.

She didn't go to sleep until around 11:30 p.m. that night, and was completely exhausted the next morning, not surprisingly. But I think this might be a fun Fourth of July tradition: To watch fireworks on the golf course and then camp with her Daddy.