July Fourth Blow Out!

Three lollipops later... can you say sugar high?!

As anyone from Alexandria knows, we take our parades seriously... President's Day parade? check. George Washington's Day parade? check check. The official first St. Patrick's Day parade in the country? you betcha. But no fourth of July parade. Wonders never cease. In fact the City of Alexandria will be hosting their celebratory fire works display this Saturday, July 13th but I've digressed. We joined some friends at the Fairfax City parade this year and I'm so glad we did, it was a serious parade! Lasting nearly 2 hours with a host of bands, dancers, shriners mini cars, dancing librarians and even real parade floating balloons! Move over Macy's Parade! Neither Jim nor I had even been to Fairfax.  What? its only 10 miles away you say? What can I say, its out of my bubble. 

Fairfax old Town Hall

Chillin'

Sweet Maisie!

The Hard Times Cafe horse made the parade!

When it comes to lollipops I'm bipartisan! 

Colin and darling lil' Alice!

Afterwards we stopped by a friend's family home near by and had a cook out and pool party. What fun! Will and Colin swam while Jim and I caught up with friends. And if there was any doubt that Will is 100% my child, he refused to stay in the shallow end despite not really being able to swim. That's him, the little dot  across the pool. I guess I should be glad he didn't just jump in the deep end as I did at his age. 

The boys were so beat when we finally got home they literally collapsed the moment we opened the front door.

But a few minutes with Uncle Garrett and they were revived! Special thanks to Uncle G for the legos! Something tells me this is the last time you give legos to someone who then requires you to "help" assemble them! 

Just like the saying goes about trees falling in the forest with no one to hear it... so goes our first big party at the new house! If there aren't any pictures to prove it, did the party really happen? For anyone that knows me I take a thousand pictures a day so the fact that I was only able to snap two says how busy I was. 

Jim has long capped my parties at specific numbers depending on our house size. Our Old Town town house was capped at 30 guests and in our Del Ray duplex the absolute not-one-more-body limit was 22. So naturally we had 100 people at our bbq this weekend! It was chaos and madness but so much fun as well! Jim smoked 60 lbs of brisket! That's right folks 60 lbs! That's a whole lot of meat. We had sausage from Kreuz in Lockhart, "real" Texas Dr. Pepper and Blue Bell ice cream shipped directly from the factory in Brenham. Those were the stars of the party but we also had a number of side dishes plus Texas Sheet cake. Well that and my new favorite summer cocktail, courtesy of Uncle Garrett! His "summer beer" which I renamed the Betty White is light, fruity and refreshing, perfect for the 90+ degree weather we had on Saturday. 

Couldn't even fit all the kids in the picture! 

Everyone loves Blue Bell! 

Will is quite concerned about how Auntie Kathryn and Uncle Kevin can live in a "big apple" 

And what were we up to the day after the big party? 

Yep, relaxing at home! 

Till Next Time, 

Mamma, Frog & Toad