{4th of July 2013: Part 2}

The weekend of the 4th, the sun showed up in spurts and we took advantage of the moments to do some typical summer fun activities. Saturday, we drove to see the L family for some fun at that lake.
They had their annual golf parade. The dads and the kids had a great time riding!

It was fun watching the kids waved at us.

My kids have been looking forward to their boat ride at Mr. Bobby's boat. These 3 are seriously best buds. Can't wait for Lena to be up and about and join this crew.

Kids also had fun swimming at the look looking for golf balls near this hole.

Oh what an absolutely great time we had! So blessed to have friends who feels like family.

We were also ecstatic to hear that the Chamblee fireworks was on schedule for Sunday. The H family met up with us, and we had a great time. I love this fireworks show and a must for us every 4th.

The mommas!

The kiddos running around before the show.

The 7th of July celebration. Go 'merica!

Rockin' it out with the band to Livin' on  a Prayer.

Windin' down a lil before the big fireworks and Samantha deemed a nap was necessary.

Another great fireworks show, another great 4th. Blessed to be living in this wonderful country!

{Holiday with Friends}

I love get together with friends on holidays. They are part of our family Christmas tradition. We are extremely blessed to be surrounded by inspiring people. Lots of good hearts and laughter from friends!

{Christmas Get Together}

We are so fortunate to have friends who are family to us. It's been a busy for year for everybody but I am so glad that we all found the time to celebrate the holidays cheers together. I don't see these ladies enough and it felt good to catch up with them.

The kids are all getting bigger. They had a blast opening their presents. Love everybody!

{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!

{2011 4th of July Happenings}

The hubby and I agreed that 4th of July is creeping out there as one of our favorite holidays. The past few years have been great times and this year didn't disappoint either.

We kicked of the 4th of July weekend with a BBQ with William's classmate family. It was a nice intimate get together and the kids had a blast just playing with their friends. We were asked to bring fruits to the potluck and I decided to give the homemade edible arrangement a try. William and I had fun working on this project. We cut up pineapples in star shapes and dipped strawberries in white chocolate and blue candy sprinkles. Perfect for the red,white and blue celebration. I think it turned out great!
The following day. I got Ed to agree to smoked some pork shoulder and chicken wings for our dinner with my family. We pretty much just stayed at home all day and the kids still had fun just playing inside. It was very hot outside so our plan of staying indoor worked out great.
It was the first dinner at our house with my family since Dad passed away. I gotta be honest, there were plenty of moments where I got a lil teary eyed. I miss him so much. I know how my father enjoyed our get togethers. He's one of the reason why I got into cooking and hosting parties. He appreciated these celebrations and enjoyed it to the fullest!I am so glad that my aunt came in. I love the fact that my kids are so close to her and familiar with her. Ed and I also both ran the Peachtree Road Race 10K this year. Because of the kids, we tried to take turns each year on running it. This year my family baby sat both kids and they did really great! Thanks to my mom and brother. They were very entertained and even took a nap in the afternoon. Woo hoo!

The race was so fun. Ed had a great run and finished it at 1:03. I finished at 1:14. A decent time but I hope to improve it over the next years.We had these big plans of taking the kids to our neighborhood park for fireworks in the afternoon. That was cancelled due to storms. Tried to take pictures of the kids in their 4th of July outfits, sadly my camera was not cooperating and it turned out blury.
Luckily, they rescheduled the fireworks the following weekend so it all worked out. We love our neighborhood. Police officers were at almost every block directing traffic and patrolling the event. William was so cute and kept hollering at them and saying "Good evening officer". They thought he was so adorable and they gave him a teddy bear and a ball.
Pre-fireworks we just hang out and let the kids play in the field.
Told you, these two have special connection. Look how big that smile is to big brother.
Mommy and Samantha just enjoying the outdoors.
The best part of the festivity....we were joined by the awesome K and W family. Feel so blessed to have them in our lives. Moms, Dads and kids all get along.
Ms Ra, got these cool flags for the kids and they had so much fun spinning it.

Samantha and Liam on their goldfish date.
Cool Dads!
Beautiful fireworks. It was so neat to be that close to it. Really enjoyed it. William was oooing and aaing. He was sitting on my lap and kept saying.... "I like the blue ones", "That is pretty"....then suddenly silence....

Yes, my child fell asleep in the middle of the fireworks. It was loud and he slept right though it. We thought it was hilarious! He must have been really exhausted from all the playing earlier.What a fun 4th of July it was for our family!