The Carolina princesses...

4th of July

The kids started the morning off with a bicycle parade around the neighborhood...

which ended at the pool with watermelon and lemonade and swimming for a few hours.

Then we went inside for Hannah's nap and the rest of us relaxed and watched "Swiss Family Robinson"...but the boys (including Bill) were sooo ancy trying to waste the time until "fireworks"...
...here we finally went outside to get "ready!" and the boys made red, white and blue snowcones for the kids...

Getting started with the smokebombs...

and sparklers... just waiting for dark!!! Oh my goodness, between my "boys" and the rest of the neighbor "boys" (I mean men!)...we had hours worth of fireworks last night!!! It is so funny how the "men" are just like "little boys" on the 4th of July.

The Bodyguards!!!

Far left: Josh; Far right: his buddy, Matt...
Seriously...they were bodyguards at the concert last night. You see, our local family christian radio station was hosting it's birthday celebration with a "free" christian concert. There were 2 newer groups (can't remember the name of those) and the now famous "Newsboys". And Josh and Matt got "hired" (without pay of course) to be their bodyguards for the evening. I knew they were going to work at the concert, but "bodyguards"??? Really now!!! It was so funny, when Hannah saw him standing there. she ran up to give him a hug (can you imagine? a bodyguard seen hugging a 2 year old little girl?) Anyway, not realizing yet what his "job" was, we came over to say "Hi!" and they informed us they were bodyguards and were not allowed to talk to the public! (I'm now just the "public!) And that we needed to "scram" because we were not allowed "back there" and we were going to get them "fired!!!" So, Bill gave Josh his sunglasses so he'd look more like a "bodyguard".
Here's a pic of our little dancer Hannah enjoying the "Newsboys"...

and eating cotton candy...

and getting her face painted...

and did I mention "everything" was "free"...there were carnival rides, wall climbing, a big slide, balloon animals, face painting, jumpers, soda, juice, cotton candy...the only thing you had to pay for was the hotdog dinner for a whole $1. Here's 1 last pic of Hannah with our neighbor, Kaitlyn, (Matt's little sister):

I have to say this is very much a family community here...they do a lot of things like this, and a lot for "free!" Who would have thought in California!? Free??...no way!!!

An afternoon at Carowinds...

Carowinds is our closest amusement park...it borders North and South Carolina. It takes us about 1 hour 20 min. to get there (same as going to Disneyland in traffic when we were in Cali.). So, we got the boys passes. Unlike Magic Mountain, the water park here is inside the amusement park. (They just have signs saying shirts and shoes beyond this point). Anyway, so we spent a couple hours yesterday at the water park. While the boys were sliding, Hannah and I just hung out in the kids area. She's not fond of water spraying all over her so we pretty much spent the time right here. I did take her on the lazy river which she loved until we got to the section that you have to get sprayed. She hated that and didn't want to go around again. Although Hurricane Harbor in Cali. was much bigger, I have to say I loved how "uncrowded" it is here. I grabbed a lounge chair in the shade right next to her. I remember we use to have to get there when it opened just to grab chairs for the day. And then the lines! (I do miss having you, Heidi and Tina, who we'd always spend the summers there with though!)

Don't kids make friends so easily???

And then we walked around the amusement park while the boys did their rollercoasters. Jacob finally joined my other 2 rollercoaster fanatics...now they all 3 are!!! So, Hannah and I spent most of our time in the kids land. We went on this "Boots" choo-choo train ride 3 times in a row (She kept saying "one more time!")...I finally said that's enough. We went on the carasoul twice and she is getting to be such a big girl, she was barely big enough for the swings and jet boat rides...here's a pic of her on the swings:

Although I don't think she'll go on them next time...she got a little scared! Last summer she loved the hot-air ballon ride...but won't go near it now. She's at that age where she's afraid. Hopefully, she'll get past that quickly so she can keep up with her brothers!!!:) (Actually, I think I'll keep her young as long as possible!)

Oh! I think I hear thunder...our storm tracker just went off twice...guess we're on thunderstorm warning...better call Bill so he can pack up tools! Weather here is soooo wierd!

Thanks grammy for my new purse!

...just a pic of hannah enjoying her new purse from grammy along with the sunglasses (Dora her favorite!) and best of all, her lipgloss!!! She LOVES lipgloss and she's only 2! (Uh oh!) Thank you grammy and papa and uncle jimmy!!!

Our watermelon garden!!!

This one's specially for our farmer friends (you know who I'm talking about Haney family) who think we're just city folk...betcha' didn't know you could grow a watermelon garden with a flower garden?!? If you take a good look you'll see a baby watermelon in the picture...we have a bunch of them! It's amazing what can happen when your kids spit their seeds in the garden!

Trying to catch some fish for supper...

After a cloudy, drizzly day, the sun finally popped out and the boys dragged dad (who was enjoying relaxing on his chair watching the ball game) to the lake to go fishing in the canoe...

and here's a couple pics of Jacob and Hannah kicking back, enjoying the beautiful sunshine and the lake...