Our Independence Day Celebrations ~Part 2

The Fourth of July was spent pretty quietly by all of us except Lee, he was biting the bit for sunset ;). We read a couple of chapters out of The Light and the Glory For Children by Peter Marshall and David Manuel and a few letters written by Abigail Adams before and during the War of Independence. Early that evening we left to meet Lee's employee's and their families for a nice dinner, redeeming the time spent in the car by reading aloud the Declaration of Independence. Lee and his store won $2,000 last Christmas for a store party and they had not had the opportunity to actually do much with it yet so they kind of decided at the last minute to go out for a nice meal on the fourth and then go back to someone's home to shoot off some fireworks. The meal was nice and afterwards we met at Erika's home. Her parents had graciously offered their land as our gathering place. We set out lawn chairs and laid down blankets for the littles and sat back to enjoy the show.
Some pictures...
Cheryl, on the left, is the very same Cheryl made famous for watching our children on again and off again during my on again and off again labor with Andrew.

Lee actually played match-maker with the following couple, Erika and Matt, and it appears to be working out :). Erika is a homeschool graduate and she has seven brothers and sisters, isn't that neat :). It was kind of odd to see several little Erika's running around, I had never met any of them before.

Ethel and her hubby David are next, Andrew actually went to her for a few moments without getting upset! Ethel is so sweet and she has really helped Lee out a lot, even offering to come back from her vacation many states away when she had to leave before Andrew was born, who, if you will remember, was taking his time ;). 

Lee, ready for action ;)...

Some littles enjoying the action...these weren't quite as loud so Andrew warmed up to them much more quickly though he still felt awfully stiff in our laps ;)...

Some of us got a little wound up...

One of Erika's sisters gave thegirls some glow in the dark bracelets which they thought were pretty neat. We all had fun and there is still so much money left over that we are planning a trip to the Biltmore Estate in the fall, fun :)!!!