Happy Birthday to Me

That's right, I'm older now. Happy Birthday to me and thanks to everyone for the emails, texts, calls, etc. They made my day. I've found that when you're "grown up" and have responsibilities (whether they be work related or kid/family related), birthdays become less of a big deal. I still had a great day though. I showered, took a nap (I only got 5.5 hours of sleep the night before), did a lot of house cleaning, and took care of my kiddos. We went to Olive Garden tonight, so my life is complete because I got lots of yummy salad, breadsticks, and Chicken Garlic con Broccoli - it's the only thing I ever get. Y-U-M.

For Independence Day, we had an absolutely fantastic day. We started off with a breakfast with our church group. It's tradition and we love it. There's just something nostalgic about pancakes and scrambled eggs cooked on those large camping stoves. It reminds me of girls camp or something. I don't think Sydney ate a single bite. She was on the swings or the slide or petting a dog the whole time. Which means she was in heaven.

It was an exhausting day for the smallest of the small ones.
After breakfast we headed over to our community clubhouse. Every Independence Day they have a petting zoo and pony rides for the kids. Here are Sydney and Daddy with a tortoise. There was a noisy goat there who almost ruined the whole experience for Sydney. He wouldn't stop "baa-ing" and scaring her, but she eventually got over it.

She was all over the ponies. She kept yelling "whee!" It was like the carousel all over again.

After some naps and lunch, we headed to the pool. Aaron had - sadly enough - never been with the girls. Sydney didn't so much like falling in face first. Apparently 1 ft deep water is scary when you're only 3 ft tall. It took her awhile to warm up to it again.

With both girls. Mady's first time in.
Love Sydney's face. I asked her to smile.
After some more naps, we headed over to a good friend's house for a BBQ. This is all Sydney ate. She loved it (obviously).
After dinner we topped the day off with was a very nice fireworks show with a whole bunch of great friends. Sydney was scared at first, but after a bit of comfort food (cherries), she was good to go! Mady watched silently for a little while, then rolled over and went to sleep.
It was a decent show and, most important of all, from the time it finished to when we were home was only 30 minutes (and this place we went is 15-20 min away anyway!). All in all we had a perfect Fourth of July!