Happy Birthday USA!

I am having so much fun planning holidays! This year, for the Fourth, we had a mini celebration the weekend before at Mom's. Will cooked us some burgers and hot dogs (with fruit, potato salad, chips, brownies, and ice cream) and we let the kids play with water toys. Then around 8 we lit up some small fireworks. The kids had a lot of fun with those!

For the actual day we had so much fun! We started the day working on some Summer goals. We went to the church parking lot and brought bikes and scooters with us. We took the training wheels off the big bike and within about 10 minutes Cara was a bike riding machine. At first she had trouble staying up for long, but one of the things she loves is measuring success so I told her we'd count to see how long she could stay up and at first we'd only get to about 6-8, by the time we were done there she was staying up for almost 30 (this isn't seconds, it was just us counting, but it was quite the improvement). She was so proud of herself and we were definitely cheering her on. Gwen just scooted her little heart out, Lucy actually rode her pink tricycle bike all the way there and back AND was able to do turns all on her own. Pierce just had fun running around haha. 

After that we went over to Ridley's to get some treats and some other things we'd need for the day. Then we went home and worked on a little star craft I found online. Even though I showed the girls what it would look like in the end, they all had their own interpretations with it, which I love. 

We then had lunch and did a fun star guy craft (something I figured all the girls could do). They all did their own interpretation of it (Gwen's is the closest to what I was aiming for), but that's the creative process, right? We also made some fun red, white, and blue kabobs with fruit and marshmallows. The kids loved this part.

After that, I took the girls over to the playground while Pierce and Larry slept. I was hoping to cross off some more goals with Gwen working on pumping at the swing, but it turns out everything was REALLY hot and they were all wearing swim suits so we just played for about 15 minutes and then went back home. Cara made sure to ride her bike all the way there and back. I made it a goal to not sit down or be lazy today (I knew I'd be skipping my workout tonight so I wanted to be as active as possible).

After nap time we went for a hike to Grotto Falls in Payson Canyon. I had heard it was a pretty cool hike, but the pictures online made me have really low expectations. It ended up really impressing me. Some of the trail was a little iffy for the littles, but mostly it was a good one with lots of turn offs to walk through the little river from the falls. The falls themselves were REALLY need and we took our time playing in the water and splashing around.

It was a really cool hike that the kids all enjoyed. After the hike we came home and ate dinner, cleaned up the house a bit and then went outside. We made some s'mores and played with bubbles. Around 8 we lit our fireworks. We didn't have a ton, but it was enough to show the kids the excitement (Pierce and Lucy stayed in the garage, but Cara and Gwen were all about lighting them off, if they could, or being as close as possible haha). We let the kids play for a bit longer, Cara was even more all about her bike and riding it all over (I'm really, so very proud of her for learning AND wanting to keep with it). 

At bedtime we read our 4th of July books (one was the "'Twas the Night Before 4th of July" the other was one about the Statue of Liberty) and then said goodnight. The kids all said that everything was their favorite part of the day, which they always say, but today I think they meant it. They all said they loved the bikes, the waterfall hike, the fireworks, and especially the s'mores haha.

I feel like I'm getting really good at pulling the 4th celebrations out of thin air and making it a fun day. I kind of like our "hiking to a waterfall" tradition for it so I think I'll keep that part of it. I wish we had the energy to grill today, but we didn't have true buns and we had so many leftovers that I just didn't want to battle dinner today. Other than that it went as I had planned and was so much fun.

Happy Birthday America! And Happy Independence Day to anyone reading this! I am definitely proud to be an American and love celebrating this great day!