We had the greatest 4th of July this year–it’s amazing how much difference a year makes. This time last year, Caroline as just a tiny little thing and now she is a real little person with real friends who can have real fun!

Mike and I kicked off the events with a Red Sox vs. Nationals game on July 3rd. We joined Mike’s sweet co-worker, her husband, and two young children, who were adorable and ridiculously well-behaved. We got a sitter for Caroline because NO THANK YOU. A baby at a hot evening baseball game sounds terrible. The game was so fun though, despite the 101 temps.  I drank 12 gallons of lemonade and we loved the fireworks at the end!

On the actual 4th of July, we kicked things off by putting Caroline in her very first set of patriotic pigtails!

We also invited ourselves to our friends’ wonderful kid-friendly neighborhood parade because I was determined to put Caroline in a parade. When I was little, we used to ride our decorated bikes in a neighborhood parade and I wanted to make sure we did the same for Caroline! It was fantastic.

At the last minute, Caroline’s friend Fiona and her parents joined us. The girls were VERY interested in the decorated wheels!

There were festive flags, delicious hot dogs and ice cream, and lots of kids, strollers, scooters, bikes, and dogs all decked out in their patriotic best.

After about 2.5 hours of fun in the sun, Caroline was beat so we took her home for lunch and nap. Two hours later, we were back in the same neighborhood for Pool Party!

After that, we loaded up the car with grilling out stuff and headed to the Robersons for a cook out. I wanted to see Joy and figured it would be much easier to bring my one child over to her three, so we did just that. The kids had a blast playing with the bubble maker, water table, and snuggling Baby Eliza.

We even managed to get a few pictures in there 😉

Happy 4th of July!!