Sunday, July 7, 2013

4th of july in nebraska

4th of the july was such a blast this year, as usual!

monday night my neighbor, katie, and i decided we needed to have a 4th of july party in our backyard area (we share a nice, secluded backyard).
plans were made, invites sent out, and low and behold, all our friends came thursday afternoon/evening with food in hand to share and activities ready for all.
we had the most wonderful time all night eating, talking, playing games, holding children, and watching fireworks.
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all our friends brought the most wonderful festive foods to share:
cake pops, r/w/b trifle, r/w/b fruit shish-kabobs, a huge r/w/b cake, smores pull apart bread, salads and chips galore, and you can't leave out the ginormous watermelon slices we snacked on all night long.
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the weather was so perfect all day and night long.
it wasn't the least bit hot or humid!
we sat around in our camping chairs/lawn blankets under the large shade trees all evening chatting, watching the husbands grill, trading children around and going back to the food table over and over.
it will definitely go down as the least hot 4th of july i will probably ever experience.
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after most people we done with their first/second rounds of food (of the 2038505 rounds) we began on games.
there were water balloons
races,
3 legged races,
costume/flag races,
bubble gum eating contests (14 for the female winner and 23 for male!),
hot dog eating contest ,
and a pie (whip cream) eating contest for the children.
it was all so much fun for everyone.
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i secretly want to request guests to wear color coordinated clothing to all events i plan, it's so cute.
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funniest part of the evening:
the 3 legged race for kids!
it was mostly 1 parent paired with their 3ish year old,
but there was one set of 4/5 year olds who bravely did it together, and although they were the slowest it was the funniest thing i've watched in a long time.
one would fall and as soon as he got up the other would fall and while each one was down the other was trying to drag/pull their partner with them to the finish line.
by the end they were both on the ground and even crawling wouldn't get them there.
laughter was a plentiful commodity in our backyard during those 3 minutes.

after we all recovered from our laughing attacks, we did an adult/spouse 3 legged race.
casey and i made quite the pair and i was surprised i kept up with casey!
i would have thought one of us would fall and our race would end up in blaming the other for us losing, ha.
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our wonderful 4th of july crew!
(missing a few who had to leave early)
we played a very fun game of "i've never" with everyone.
almost every adult was holding a child during the game while running to find a new spot in a different camping chair that you could not quickly/easily get out.
it was such a fun hour.
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after everyone was sufficiently stuffed from food and food eating contests,
i brought out some homemade ice cream sandwiches!
this M&M cookie recipe was so good,
after i made the cookies, i squished some softened ice cream between 2 and threw them back in the freezer.
because i have no self control i tried to devour the cookie straight out of the freezer, i swear i nearly broke a tooth, but the last bite was sufficiently softened and tasted wonderful!
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we ended the night with sparklers for the children and small fireworks for the dads/spectators.
this was the first year (in our marriage at least) that casey has gotten to buy an actual bag full of fun fireworks to light off for the evening.
i think that man was in heaven.
once a boy, always a boy :)
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thank you dearest friends for making it such a fun night.
another night to add to our nebraska memories.

hope you all had a very fun 4th of july!
i truly feel so blessed to live in the USA,
the freedom to live, love, and believe.
the founding fathers created a most wonderful framework to build our families on, i feel so blessed to call myself an american!

happy independence day!!!

ps- only disappointing thing of the 4ht of july: the country radio stations!!!! where was toby keith and god bless america all day? my american music/country loving heart was gipped!

pps- when i video chatted with my mom later in the evening when we were done with our festivities, they were having to spray themselves down with spray bottles as they were sitting, waiting for the fireworks to go off, heh heh, glad i wasn't having to do that this year.

ppps- lincoln sounded like a war zone non stop from the evening of july 3 to 1 am july 5.
everyone and their dog bought a gajillion dollars worth of fireworks and lit them off non stop it seemed.
don't know how my baby slept through it all!

4 comments:

Cherri said...

sooo fun looking. That will be a hard 4th of july to beat!

Cody and Camille said...

What a fun way to celebrate the holiday!!! Love all the festive food, outfits, and awesome games. You guys rock!

Shane and Clara said...

I would totally come to one of your parties!
so awesome to have a good group of friends in the same stage of life!

The Blackwelders said...

Happy Birthday Kimber!! Maxson looks so chunky!! It's adorable.