24th of July

As I've mentioned before, Pioneer Day is a big day deal in our town. This year I helped with it since I'm in the Primary presidency at church. The only thing worse than watching parades is being in them, but it was fun to be with my kiddos. 

Our theme was sunshine, so the kids all dressed in white t-shirts (no idea why) and sunglasses. 

Calvin and Autumn looking adorable and waiting patiently for our chance to climb on the float:

Cute Calvin:

Adorable Autumn:

Thanks to the helium shortage, we couldn't find anywhere that would rent us a tank big enough to fill our fun balloon. We ended up using a bike pump and propping it on a chair. Not so cool, but hey, who knew that one of our modern problems would be our inability to fly balloons?

Then we had the usual party at our house. The biggest hit this time around was the sidewalk chalk:

Four sky divers jumped from a plane right above us. Not sure if you can see all four specks:

More chalk:

Lots of conversation:

Darling little Ruby:

McKenna and Autumn got into a chalk fight. They thought they were HILARIOUS:

Dirty Hands:

After dinner we had a few minutes of rain. But then it cleared up and we still had the shade from the clouds and this perfect double rainbow:

 The boys playing ladder ball:

Fun on the trampoline:

Best friends hangin' together:

Chalk covered boy:

We brought out glow sticks and the kids had a blast decorating themselves and dancing in the dark. The music from the city party was blaring, and we had an awesome dance-off. 

I don't know if I've mentioned that the reason we have a party every year is because our house is right next to the park where the city does their amazing firework show. We have front row seats, in the privacy of our own yard.  This year's fireworks were some of the best I've ever seen. Loved them.

Ready for the show:

Not sure what our Mario friends were up to today, but after the kids were in bed, this is what I found on the stairs: 

 

7/24