Independence Day, 2013

 Yessss! It's the Fourth of July!!!

We started this one off like we always do-- a morning in Avon-by-the-Sea with friends!

Mina and Maya drove out to meet us, as did Payton and her family, and the Georges. Although our group was smaller this year, the kids still had a lot of fun exploring on the beach during the cloudy morning.

 And then it was back to the house. For THIS:

 I made mint lemonade using some leaves that I'd frozen from a CSA delivery (thank you to whomever further diluted it later!) and two pitchers of sangria . And then the Livingstons show up with an entire dispenser full of MORE sangria! Needless to say, there was none of this left by the end of the night ;)

 There were lots of things for the little people to do. Jim had finished the clubhouse, so they were really excited to explore that. And we had the water table set up, the bounce house, and some games in the yard. The kids did egg races on spoons and a mini-egg toss. Later, they lined up for ice pops. It was about 95 degrees.

 Above, Harrison, Jeremy, Victoria, and Lexi. Below, Desi, Kevin, Har, Jon, and Christian. Parents are hiding BEHIND the children because they are too chicken to participate in the adult egg toss. (OK, so some of them had other parties to go to and didn't want to get messy. So bring a change of clothes!)

 All lined up and ready.

 Adrienne was the one to get egged on this year. Poor thing. She said that after this picture the egg was truly starting to cook on her skin, due to the hot, hot sun. I believe it!
PS First place was Mina and Jason, yet again. Second place went to Jim and Jonathan. Bradd & I had a respectable showing, and even though the egg cracked, I managed to stay clean, hehe.

 Alana made these AWESOME flag/berry/banana skewers that everyone devoured. Luckily, we had all of those ingredients in the house, so the kids helped me put together some more. And eat them. Man, we had a LOT of food. But we were feeding sixty, so....

 

Things got a little crazy outside... we had three different sprinklers going... and someone decided to smash blue chalk and turn everyone into Smurfs... But the kids were sooo great at entertaining themselves, no one really minded.

 

Baby Averie and Mina                                           Pop Pop and blue-nosed Trenton

Patriotic Oliver

As always, I ran around like a nut and didn't take enough pictures. But we had a great time! 

Happy Fourth of July!