4th of July BBQ

This year we had our 4th of July BBQ/Party on Saturday since the 4th landed on a Sunday and we wanted to have time to clean up the next day and rest.  We had a great party again this year with friends and neighbors.  It looked like it was going to rain on us again, but we got lucky and the sun started shining again and it got hot.  Dan did a great job cooking all the brats for everyone.  The kids had a blast playing in the pools and of course we lit off fireworks at the end of the night.

We always get our 4th of July shirts and take family pictures before our guests arrive.  Normally I get matching shirts for us to where, but Old Navy's quality in shirts isn't as good anymore compared to what you used to get for $5.00 and Walmart doesn't seem to change the picture on theirs and doesn't include the year on them.  So this year I rummaged around Walmart for our $3.00 shirts and we got what we got.

Junior

Katelynn 

Mom & Junior

Mom & Katelynn

Me and the kids

Dan and Junior

Dan and Katelynn

Dan and the kids

Me and Dan (it took a couple, but Katelynn got a good one!)

I finally went out the day before the party and got my hanging baskets and they had one just for me, Vikings Colors!  Yep, I was thrilled with it!

Strangely enough (and thanks to Facebook) I had found out a few months before the 4th of July that the friend that I went to my Senior prom with happens to now live only 2 miles away from me.  This is strange because we both moved a 1000 miles away from home.  I invited him and his family to come to our BBQ and they did stop by to say hello and hang out for awhile.  It was good to see a friend from back home on a holiday.

Mike and Me

Here are some pictures of our guests as well.  We had lots of kids running around.

Me, Pradeep, Michelle, and Dan

Pradeep and Dan

Ashley, Adrian and Me

The ladies from the block - Jessica, Amanda, Me, and Sarah.

The guys from the block, Ethan, Ryan, Josh, and Dan.

And of course we put on a little show for our guests.  The kids loved the fireworks!
Ka-Boom!

Me and Dan at the end of the night, definitely enjoyed our day of entertaining!