Independence Day 2009

We had a wonderful 4th of July. Stephen spent the day at the beach with the YAM group from church. The original plan was for all of us (minus Maddy, who spent the day with her dad) to go to the beach with them... but on second thought we decided the beach all day w/ the kids (especially on a crowded holiday) was not such a good idea SO I took Reece & Olivia to the local botanical gardens instead... 

They had free admission for the holiday... and I'm so glad they did b/c we had a great time! 

Apparently we made the local news as well. 

It all started under the big tent... We decorated the stroller for the upcoming parade... 

Then in a long line of decorated strollers & wagons we marched through the children's garden proudly holding up our American flags & waving to all the passerby's . Olivia was so sweet... "I've never been in a real parade before mom!" 

as we were rounding the last curve of the parade a gentlemen stopped us & said that I looked mighty festive in my sparkly hat

so he wanted to interview me on camera. As it turns out it was our local 12 news camera guy. Apparently we made the news b/c I got a text from Robin last night at 11:07 "love the hat on tv" & a Facebook message this morning from my cousin "Hey Hollywood... saw you on the news last night". We don't have TV at the house so I asked mom to record it. (well we have TV, but no channels. We watch our few shows online & have the TV for movies). Anyway, Olivia thought it was really cool & she kept calling me a TV star. 

The gardens had a really neat butterfly display. It was a big green house with 100s of butterflies flying around... 

And of course there were a bunch of beautiful flowers everywhere. 

After we went home to rest a bit we met up with Erica & ventured out for fireworks. Can you tell Olivia was the photographer for the evening...

Very lovely Liv! Happy belated 4th everyone!