4th of July Weekend

Wow, what a weekend! We had a ton of fun, although it was a bit unusual. We were staying with Mom and Dad due to the a/c unit's death at our house. So my parents got an unusual amount of quality time with the girls...I think too much of a good thing can be bad! HA! I think we completely wore out Grammy and Gray Gray and made an absolute mess of their beautiful house! It's basically impossible to keep everything picked up and in one place with two mobile kids. It makes me crazy, but I have decided to not let it bother me as much as I think I am fighting a never ending battle! :)

Anyway, Friday we had a semi-quiet night at our house with a Chinese dinner and then headed over to Grammy and Gray Gray's for bath and bed. We were trying to get the grandparents a little peace and quiet, but unfortunately they were out the entire time we were away. Bummer! They went to visit Jill, Jared, Miles, Megan and Elizabeth who are in town visiting from Virginia! They are staying with GiGi and Joe Joe, so Mom and Dad popped over to say hello before heading home for the night. By the time they got back both girls were conked out and Christopher had headed back across the street to take care of Colby. We were all pooped, so we watched a short movie and then called it a night!

Saturday was busy, busy, with errands, cleaning and prepping for the big 4th cookout at Mom's house on Sunday. We managed to get everything done and headed off to church for the 6pm service. Katherine was SOOOO excited to get back to church! Love it! She was so excited in fact, that she forgot she had to go to the bathroom and made a mess in her pants...lovely. Luckily the church has spare clothes on hand (because I forgot spares!) so she was in a totally new outfit when I went to pick her up! :) Caroline was less enthused about the nursery, but she was super excited when Mommy came to pick her up! She has the sweetest smiles when she sees me again. :) After church we hightailed it home for bath and bed....none of us were sleeping especially great in the new sleeping arrangements, so we were all tired.

Sunday was the 4th! HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY USA!!! We were up early to clean and get ready for the big cookout/birthday celebration with the VA family, GiGi, Joe Joe, and all of us. We had a delicious lunch and then everyone ended up in the pool where Katherine showed off her stellar swimming moves. I swear she is part fish...if only she would FLOAT! Gosh darnit! Katherine L-O-V-E-D playing with Jared, Megan and Elizabeth...and Mom was grateful for some extra hands around to help! Caroline also very much enjoyed playing outside on the porch...so much so that she had BLACK feet, hands and face by the time we took her in for nap. She was quite a mess! We had to have a full bath before she could go down for a nap! We lucked out and managed to get Katherine down for a nap as well, so the grownups were able to sit on the porch and relax while the kiddos napped! We had a great time chatting with Jill, Miles, Jared, Megan and Elizabeth while listening to the fireworks go off in our neighborhood...did I mention that fireworks started at noon?! NOON! Anyway, when the girls woke up we decided that we needed pizza for dinner, so we ordered some and then stuffed ourselves...nothing like a holiday to overeat! Ugh! Finally around 8 or so the girls were DONE, I'm talking sleeping standing up tired. So the VA crew headed out to the River to watch the "real" fireworks, while we put the girls to bed...or so we thought. Did I mention that the fireworks started in our neighborhood at NOON!? Yeah...STILL going at 8:30pm. I figured they would finish by at least 10pm...yeah, not so much. Katherine didn't go to sleep until 11...and that was only because she fell asleep out of pure exhaustion. The fireworks kept going until 1am! That's 13 hours of straight fireworks. Our poor dog and both girls were frazzled by the end of all that racket! I like fireworks, but 13 hours straight?! Seriously?! As soon as I got K to sleep, of course a huge blast of fireworks went off and woke up Caroline. I finally got her back to sleep and then listened to the rest of the fireworks until 1am. Ugh! Talk about worn out!

Monday was a busy day for the Hughes crew. We started the day off at swimming lessons for Katherine. She did AWESOME and got a sticker and a piece of candy for listening so well to Ms. Carmen! Whoo hoo! Still no floating, but we're getting there! :) After swimming we zipped home to pick up Dad and Caroline and we all headed south to the Vero Outlets to get some new clothes for Caroline's first birthday and Katherine since she seems to be growing like a weed! We hit up Carter's and then got a special treat with Subway for lunch. Katherine loves Subway. Then we headed home for naps all around! Both girls took a 2 hour nap and I managed to sneak in an hour and a half. Boy did that feel GREAT! We then went to the Bistro for dinner with my parents and the hit up Toys R Us on the way home so that we could get Caroline's first birthday presents. Katherine picked out one toy for her and we got another from us. The funny thing is that according to Katherine, Caroline sure does want a lot of Princess Dress Up stuff and Disney computer games. HA! She was so funny, she would catch herself saying "I want that!", and then quickly correct herself and say "I mean, Caroline would really like that!" Chris and I were dying laughing. After Toys R Us we headed home for bath and bed. Too bad the bed part didn't stick for long. I went to bed around 10:30pm...Caroline woke up at 11, Katherine woke up at midnight, then Caroline took over for the rest of the night waking at 1, 3, 5, and 6 and finally got up for the day at 7! UGH! That was one LONG night. I felt like I had a newborn again!

We are so glad that the Truslows were able to come down and visit over the 4th! WE had a blast!!!

Pictures will be posted soon on shutterfly...e mail me if you need the address and password. :)