{4th of July: 2012}

Fourth of July is definitely a favorite holiday of ours. I love how we are starting to build family traditions on this day. We are feeling very patriotic and are flowing with gratitude that we live in this beautiful country.

We got up bright and early to join 60,000 other runners to run the biggest 10K in the world--the Peachtree Road Race.  Ed was in the "A" group this year and got to start early and ran behind the sub seeded runners. Running a couple of races this year paid off coz my brother, Mr. Clark, Michael and me weren't too far behind and started 30 minutes after the speedy runners :)

Ed and I both finished strong. Ed finished at 46:31 and I finished this race at 1:03:51. Definitely proud of both of us! Every year the event is getting better lots of activities and goodies post race. Our favorite was the iced towel at the finish line. A great treat for runners in this hot hot Atlanta temps! Another favorite were the fresh peaches up for grab post race. It was refreshing. Hey, Mr. Peach even showed up.

The kids enjoyed the post race goodies as well.

My mom and sister were so sweet and watched the kids while run the Peachtree. We had a quick bbq lunch at home.I can't believe I didn't snapped a picture. We must have been starving and ready to eat. We enjoyed some "America cake" as William calls it. It was so sweet because Samantha kept telling everybody that she made it.  She really did helped making it.

Kids took a great nap in the afternoon and it really helped them with all the activities later on that day.

Our neighborhood 4th of July festivities just keeps getting better and better. The fireworks is spectacular, and just as good as the big fireworks in the city. Even better the convenience can't be beat. It's just a short drive from our house and you are in and out in less than 15 minutes. Before heading to the park, we stopped by at William's coaches 4th of July party. They just renovated their house and it is fabulous! Their new kitchen is pinterest worthy :) They have two boys and plenty of sports toys around the house and in their backyard. I found my two sports lil girl wearing these.

They had a birthday cake for "America" and let all the kids blow out the candles. It was so neat and really got the kids into the spirit.

It was getting dark, so we started making the trek to the park which was just around the block from the party we were at.

We found a spot for u to watch the fireworks from and settled in to enjoy the live band playing. There was a lot of families and friends celebrating and just great energy all around.

Chamblee police was handing out toys to kids and my lil ones had so much fun with their glow in the dark sticks.

I love these two kiddos. They are so fun and enjoy festivities like this.

Our favorite local ice cream shop was also selling ice cream at the park so the kids just had to have their share of Frosty Caboose goodies :)

Then at dusk they started the fireworks. Kids enjoyed it. William kept telling us his favorites. Samantha liked it but was very uncertain on those that made big booming sounds. I held her and she was fine. Her head was laying on my shoulder but she still wanted a peak so it was angled so she can still get a view of the show.

Another great 4th of July for our family!