Parades, Picnics & Fireworks

We had a wonderful 4th this year, one of our favorites ever. :) It was just a beautiful day with lots of fun with our girls, neighbors and friends. It started out with the Yorktown parade. It's not an overly crowded parade, which is nice, and we were right next to the bandstand which played before, after and even during parts of the parade.
After the parade we stuck around for some swimming with the Ickes. I hadn't come prepared with swimsuits, but we made do. Gracie's hat got left at home so this is the contraption Nathan came up with while I was going to find a hat for the poor baby - lol..
My solution wasn't much better - haha. The only small sized hat in the gift store was, I realized once I got back to the beach, too small for my 89% head size baby. :p It kept the sun off though and we'll get our money's worth out of it next summer. :)   
The evening of the 4th we had our neighbors in our town home row over for a bonfire, s'mores, etc. I didn't get any pictures of the event, but here is Evie oh so patiently waiting for her friends to arrive.
Both girls took late naps so we finished off the day with fireworks! Our friends (who also joined us for the parade in the morning) live close to CW so we parked there, walked part way, watched the fireworks and left without having the hassle of traffic or parking. Thanks, friends! :)

And my favorite pictures of the night :) (taken by a REAL photographer, as in, he was Condolezza Rice's personal photographer for a while).

So thankful for my family and our friends who helped make this day of celebration so wonderful, for the country that we get to live in, and for all the people who have (and are) fighting to make it possible!