4th of July afternoon

The kids played on the shore during the boat parade.  It took a long time while the boats/floats circled the lake.  They kept busy digging in the sand and pushing the kayaks around.

I like watching them when they are playing so nicely together.

Chloe had jazz hands.

It was a very cloudy morning and afternoon with a few sprinkles.  The clouds didn't clear out until after 4pm.

Afterwards, everyone came back and the kids helped decorate the golf cart for the golf cart parade.

They did their own artwork and Owen thought his Brain Damage poster should go front and center.  I have no idea where he got this phrase/idea.  Silly boy.

Owen also painted the flag on the side of the cart.

I liked how the kids were hidden underneath the flag and I could only see their legs.

After the golf cart parade, Owen had fun throwing the leftover candy up in the air and trying to catch it in the bowl.

What wasn't caught in the bowl, he picked up before throwing it all up into the air again.

We went over to Grandma LaVonne's (Grandma Sharon's mom) for dinner.  We ate steak sandwiches, beans, potato salad and lots of fruit.  It was soooo delicious!  Both kids enjoy hanging out with cousins Lisa and Jennifer and playing cards.

Chloe sat between the girls while she ate dinner.  Notice the names on cups?  Chloe spent quite a bit of time carefully writing EVERYONE'S names on cups so there would be no mix-ups.

Todd hung out with Uncle Warren (his Dad's brother).  He saw my camera in hand and did his best to avoid eye contact with me.  :)

Grandma LaVonne, Aunt Joan (Uncle Warren's wife) and Aunt Louise (Grandma LaVonne's sister) sat across from me over dinner.  I really enjoy the company of these women and love watching the fun they have with our kids and the conversations they have with each other.

I really like this picture of Grandma Sharon and Grandma LaVonne :)  These two women LOVE to play cards and are instilling that sense of fun in our kids.  They are patient and delight in our kids points-of-view and seeing them learn new things.

After dinner I went out fishing with Todd and my favorite Father-in-Law.  Before we left the dock, we saw the kids out on the paddle boat with Lisa and Jennifer.

When we got to the other side of the lake to fish, the water was like glass.  It was so still and peaceful.

Catching the keepers was slow this evening.  Perhaps from the storm the night before that dropped four inches of rain on us.  We brought back only four croppies.  The loons were out on the lake while we were fishing, so I asked Papa if he would motor by them slowly on our way back to the dock.  We got fairly close, but shade was cast over most of the lake from the sun setting behind the trees.  It wasn't until I got the pictures uploaded and cropped that I could see the babies still have fluffy feathers on them.

I liked the golden sunset that greeted us at the dock.

And Jennifer had braided the girl child's hair.  She looked so cute with the french braid going down the back of her head.