Happy 4th of July !

I'm going to start this post with a disclaimer - there are a large number of photos! Tony and I both adore the Fourth of July, and all the celebrations, parades, cookouts and patriotism that comes along with it. Although we have more plans for tomorrow, the bulk of our 4th celebrating actually took place today - on the 3rd. This morning was Jeffersonville's annual Freedom Parade. For the second year in a row, Andrew participated with his TKD group. For the first time in any parade, he got to march rather than ride.
We dropped Andrew off at the starting point and then grabbed a place to sit and watch the festivities. Sophie and Aidan waited very patiently and snacked on goldfish while we passed time before the parade. Sophie looked like the all-American baby.

The Freedom Parade is the perfect small-town parade. It starts at the river and runs about six or eight blocks to the park near the courthouse. It lasts about an hour, which is about the attention span of my children. Sophie heard the sirens before the parade made it to us, and I jumped to the middle of the street to catch her expression. "Look, here it comes!"

Sophie has been to several parades, but this is the first one she has really paid attention to and enjoyed. She cheered for everyone, waved her flag, and danced to all the music. It was precious!
And, of course, here is the real reason we came to the parade! I am so proud of Andrew and his accomplishments in TKD.

This next picture is mostly for my HGS friends. We made it back to the van and loaded up. As we were driving down the road, I happened to look in the backseat. This is what I saw:
I'm a little curious about where this falls in the flag etiquette book? I know you can't burn the flag, but what about eating it? I swear, no posing here. She was just sitting patiently, chomping on the stars and stripes. In her defense, she is getting the last of her teeth in.

After the parade, we headed home to take naps. A friend of Tony's came over to fix our air conditioning - hallelujah! Then Tony went to work and I took the kiddos up to Mom and Dad's for a 4th picnic. Dad had set up his hunting tents for the kids to play in. Sophie loves anything resembling a playhouse. Is she ready to go turkey hunting, or is she the prey?
While we were getting ready to eat, a baby frog hopped right onto my aunt's foot. Aidan, my bug catcher, was tickled. He "saved" the frog and took it safely to the woods. He's all boy when it comes to nature!

While Aidan frog-wrangled, Andrew was already roasting hot dogs. We had a great cookout with Aunt Connie and Uncle Gary in town, along with all my cousins and their significant others. It's been a long time since the whole family has been together at once, minus poor Tony, of course.
Sophie likes to think she's a big girl, but she has a pacifier addiction problem. This picture appears that she's cozying up to William, but seconds later she had his pacifier in her mouth.
Here are the big-kid cousins. One day, Sophie and William will be big enough to join in the fun. What a wonderful family we have!
Tomorrow will be another busy day of celebrating. We are having Mass and breakfast with Memaw for her birthday (she's a firecracker baby!). Then, we are going to William's baptism. When Tony gets off work in the afternoon, he finally gets to celebrate the 4th. We're going to grill out with out parents and a few of Tony's friends. Nothing like a summer holiday to remind us of our blessings!