July 4 By Way of iPhone

When both boys woke early yesterday, we put on our July 4 big kid pants and embraced our time together to create a full day of fun. There are over 15 pictures coming your way, but I want this day in the memory books.

Being dairy free has been challenging when coming up with breakfast ideas that don't involve cereal and almond milk. Thankfully I stumbled upon this recipe a few weeks back, and I take any chance I can when J is home to spend some time in the kitchen preparing an actual hot morning meal. As a waffle lover himself, he even agrees that these are pretty good in all of their dairy-free glory.

I have been telling The Sheriff about a new water squirter game for a couple of days, and we finally had a moment to set it all up since Daddy was here to keep an eye on the tiniest tyke.  July 4th plastic cup games have certainly evolved!

You know it's a good activity when your husband has to ask if you made it up or found it on Pinterest.

After a quick cleaning up, baby feeding, and bag packing, we loaded up for the 5 minute drive to our neighborhood's July 4 celebration. We watched the bike parade and made mental notes to participate next year. We just weren't sure what this year would hold with J being so little.

With all of this, John remained unimpressed.

While John snoozed, W waited patiently with Daddy for a train ride. Apparently both boys were in a mood; The Sheriff was also unimpressed and asked, "What are we going to see, Daddy?" the whole ride. Well, Son, I suppose just a view of the lake that you see on a daily basis, this time just in a trackless train.

He soon found his groove, though, at the mention of water slides.

A bounce house plus water--what could go wrong? 

I was waiting for some type of sliding injury, but it was all smiles and sticky, wet grass! 

One trip back to the car for a change of clothes and a short wait later, we had a brown, to-go sack of burgers from one of Houston's best food trucks. 

Naps for the littles and a trip to a crowded (and out of a number of groceries!) HEB later, and the afternoon brought more 4th fun.

We put J in the exersaucer for the first time, but he was mostly intrigued by the Xbox game of football Daddy had going. Perhaps this can be our new pre-dinner, pre-Daddy arriving home, save my sanity activity.

Apparently it's like riding a bike!

He seriously had a blast in this thing!

John accompanied W on his afternoon bike ride and tuckered out from 4th of July fun before our friends Katie and Kennedy came over for a visit. He woke up just in time to see his best girl.

Nothing says "America" like shrimp tacos, homemade salsa and guacamole for dinner, right? After a Tex-Mex dinner, we spent a few more minutes outdoors before nightfall and fireworks eating ice cream cones. 

Coconut ice cream for me, thanks John! 

But W sure got down with his first cone experience, nomming down on some chocolate goodness.

The Sheriff watched most of The Incredibles to kill some time before fireworks, and we headed over with neighbors to watch the city's show from the outskirts of our neighborhood. Minus the delayed start and an unfortunate incident where toddler's head met a rushing sprinkler, all went smoothly, and with the grand finale we put July 4, 2013 to bed.