Fourth of July 2013

Mike's program manager, Suzanne Strom, was very kind enough to invite our family to their community's Fourth of July celebration in Irvine. She has 3 children and one on the way. Her two oldest are almost the same age as our kids and she is due 3 months before I am. 

They had a fun parade were the kids all decorated their bikes, scooters, and other thing and drove them around the block. The kids and I had so much fun decorating the bikes out of crate paper from dollar store.  

Lillie was so much faster than Sam, so I and my pregnant self stayed behind with Sam while Mike caught up and jogged beside Lillie.

The parade ended at a park. There we found several bouncy houses/slides, cotton candy, popcorn, fun games, a dunk tank, a food truck that made burgers, fries, hotdogs, and lots more of fun...

Lillie, Sam, Bennett, and Karen

Then we meet up with all of Mike's fellow PGY1 residency for a BBQ in Long Beach. When it got dark we headed to the beach to see fireworks lit of the Queen Mary and some people on the beach had some in the sand too. 

Grandma Gardner came to visit just after the 4th and she was so sweet and bought the kids these at the mall.

Here we are lighting off our own fireworks at home.

We had such a fun time. Make a note of who the kids have there shoes on. I made a big deal of them getting them on before we started the fireworks now look at my own feet. Yes I am not wearing any shoes and yes I stepped on a firework spark and burnt my foot. I only hope I learned my lesson and my kids never have to learn it the same way. 

We were so blessed to have Mike around so much to share this holiday with us. What a great day we will never forget...