July 4

Ready to go at the zoo! Show me the animals!
Here's what we came to see. This lion was having a lazy day.

Ben, Erin, and Claire attempting to play some Australian instrument. For all of you germophobics out there, they sanitized the mouthpieces after each person gave it a try.

Erin spent a lot of time brushing this cow. They both enjoyed the experience.

Jerry handing out sparklers and pop-its at the fireworks. Erin is looking anything but patient...and why doesn't she have shoes on?

Ben covering up as the fireworks go off. His explanation of how they work is, "The fire goes in, out, in, out, in, out, in, out, in and OUT. That's how it works, right mom?" Exactly, Ben.

Getting ready for the parade Friday morning. Ben is equipped with his binoculars again.

Claire hanging out with her buddies at the Burgess BBQ.

Claire and Ellie looking very patriotic!

That's Erin at the top of some rope contraption at Millennium Park.

Sisterly love at its finest......for about 7.2 seconds.

Ben is loving the splash pad at Millennium Park
Claire getting cooled off!

At the beach at Millennium Park

It's the end of the day, everyone's tired but had a great time!

Our 4th of July weekend was fantastic. Jerry took off the day on Thursday so that afternoon we decided to check out the zoo with the kids. It was a bit cool so we figured it would be a good day to see the new lion exhibit. Thursday night we watched the Ada fireworks from Ada Christian playground which was so much fun for the kids. They saw a bunch of school friends who they haven't seen for a while and enjoyed their first real fireworks display. The fireworks was a bit of a love/hate thing for Ben who sat on my lap the whole time holding his hoodie from his sweatshirt tightly across his face. Friday morning Jerry took Ben to the pancake breakfast at the firehouse, and then we all went to the Ada parade. I love parades, but could we please ban Tootsie Rolls from the candy being thrown? I have never liked those things. They are just a cheap waxy imitation of chocolate. Later that afternoon we headed over to our friends' house, Chris and Laurie, for a little BBQ and badminton. I came home with callouses on my hands from gripping that racquet! Nothing like a little competition! Saturday afternoon we ventured over to Millennium Park. I highly recommend it, although I still couldn't give directions as to how to get there. The kids loved the beach, water, sprinkler pad, playground......so fun!