Our Crazy Happy Fourth

We had a really fun and beautiful Fourth of July! We hosted this year, and ended up with about 24 people at our house during the course of the day. It was busy, but we really enjoyed having everybody and think our house is a great location for the Fourth of July celebration.

We started our day picking up Grandma and Grandpa J. from their sailboat in Port Washington. That's right—Grandpa and Grandma sailed across Lake Michigan to visit us! They sailed over on Sunday (with great conditions for the crossing) and spent the night on the boat in their slip in Port Washington. I picked them up Monday morning, just in time for them to help us get ready for the party. : ) And they were a HUGE help—they did a great job of entertaining Elsa and Claire and keeping them out of our hair while Bob and I went shopping, cleaned up, and cooked. It made the preparations so much easier!

As usual, I got busy during the party and completely forgot to take pictures, but you'll have to take my word for it that Bob made some amazing food. He made pulled pork and chicken cordon bleu in the smoker, plus he grilled burgers. And we also had a great selection of really delicious desserts.

There were lots of things for the kids to do, including the slip n' slide, t-ball, squirt guns, and more. Katie's boyfriend Mark's kids joined us, so that made it extra fun for the girls. Once it started to get dark, the kids got ready to watch the fireworks from North Shore Country Club, of which we have a great view.

Here are Elsa, Karina, Claire, and their respective babies awaiting the show.

Evening fun with glow necklaces, which I'm guessing are far less likely than sparklers to require a visit to the burn unit at Children's. Mommy likes.

Then we all trekked out across the fairway to watch the display, which is always surprisingly good for a country club show (I think). Claire enjoyed the fireworks too–although not nearly as much as she enjoyed spotting airplanes overhead. Seriously, she was so into the airplanes. When the fireworks were done, she asked, "Where'd the airplanes go?"

Once the party was over, we got to enjoy a few more days with Grandpa and Grandma. It was a busy few days, with Elsa's usual menu of summer activities. But we did sneak in some time on Grandpa's boat. Would you believe Elsa and Claire have never been on it? I'm not sure why—I guess we're always just too busy when we're in Michigan to go out on it?

There wasn't much wind (at all), so we just puttered around the Port Washington harbor, but the girls loved it! Claire sat surprisingly still throughout the ride.

Elsa got to steer the boat once we got past the breakwall. I'm surprised the Coast Guard didn't try to intercept us for drunken boating, with the way we were zigzagging around. She sure loved being at the helm!

By the time the week was over, I was ready to keel over from exhaustion, but we had a great time with everybody. Thanks for celebrating with us!