Fun On the 4th

I'd say this past weekend is going down in the books as one of the most fun times we have had....just the 4 of us. Spencer was off all weekend so we took advantage of that and enjoyed our time together. This weekend of fun was well-deserved after the week from ____ that we had. Ella Ann came down with a violent stomach virus in the middle of the night Monday night and from the first time she threw up in her bed she continued to throw up every 1-2 hours. She never once kept down a single sip of water until the middle of the night Tuesday night when she woke us up dying of thirst. I bet she tossed her cookies 20-30 times. Bless her little heart. She was so tiny and pitiful looking....pretty much until Friday. She threw up one more time on Thursday but mainly it just took forever for her little body to recover from being so sick. Her chest and throat hurt for several days because of the continual vomiting. I'd say she was finally back to her old self by Saturday. What a week, to say the least. Fortunately the rest of us managed to steer clear of the nasty bug.

Saturday morning we were invited to go over to one of Spencer's friends house to watch soccer and let our kids play together, who are close in age. They had breakfast for us and it was very fun to spend some time with people we do not normally see and for Ella Ann and Rane to hang with some new people. That afternoon all of us went to the grocery...my dream! I love it when Spencer goes because he puts Rane in the car, puts the groceries in the car and carries them all in! Ahhhhh! We grilled out that evening and ate dinner on our porch. Ella Ann and Rane LOVED eating outside at their own table and I especially loved dining outdoors because I didn't have to clean up!

Sunday morning I made monkey bread and a crab dip for later that afternoon. We stopped at Starbucks for drinks on our way to church, which we actually never made it to because our church is off of Peachtree Road and the entire street was blocked due to the Peachtree Road Race. I don't know why we even attempted to go because we should've known the street still would not have reopened by 11 a.m. So we turned around and headed back home after stopping at Whole Foods for some splurges. I made a fabulous, I mean f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s, strawberry cake when we got home to have after our dinner. We tried our best to force Ella Ann to take a nap so that she could stay up when it got dark to do sparklers and fireworks, but after 2 hours of trying we gave up. Once both kids were up we spent the rest of the day/evening in the backyard. The kids played on the slip-n-slide and in the pool while Spencer and I played with our new phones and chatted. We grilled out again and Spencer got the fire pit going so we could toast marshmallows. Ella Ann was thrilled! She does a good job and could probably eat the entire bag of marshmallows! I gave Rane untoasted marshmallows, his very first, because I couldn't handle the mess! Once we put Rane down for the night and it got a little darker outside we lit the sparklers and fireworks. I got some really nice sparklers, unintentionally, that were like 2 feet long and would change in color and make their own little fireworks as the flame went down the stick. I thought Ella Ann would be afraid of the sparklers and fireworks but she couldn't get enough! Spencer would light the barrel of fireworks and we would clap and cheer when it was over. Ella Ann said it was the best night ever so it was the most fun for Spencer and I to see her have such a good time with just us.

Doing some art with her new friend, Ella, Saturday morning.

Before we left for Starbucks/church Sunday morning.

In this picture it looks like Ella Ann knew what she was doing on the slip-n-slide but Spencer was at the other end and he pushed her legs so she'd sail down the slide, otherwise it wouldn't happen and 95% of the time she'd never even make it to the end! Maybe next year! Rane, on the other hand.....

loved it!

Ella Ann has since asked me if we could eat dinner outside every night. Rane thought he was such a big boy sitting at the picnic table!

Ohhhhhhh......yummmmm! Look at that! :)

Toasting her marshmallows.

Her very first sparkler!

I joined in on the fun too!

Our fireworks!