July 4th fun!

This 4th of July, the weather couldn't have been better. We had really low humidity, cool evenings, and very sunny during the day.  As many of you know, this is NOT typical for a summer in St Louis!   Our holiday started with going to a local parade.  Here's the kids waiting for the parade to begin.

Notice the super cute dresses for the girls and their dolls.  My mom had a neighbor make these.  Aren't they adorable?!?  The girls kept getting compliments and also were thrown extra candy because of their cuteness!

Later, at home we made homemade ice cream in a ziplock bag.  I'd found a recipe for this a few years ago and it's become one of our July 4th traditions!  The kids love it and it is fairly easy and VERY tasty.  This photo is hilarious.  The three older kids are all shaking their bag to make ice cream.  They have to shake for about 5 minutes.  Check out Olivia's face, she means business...

We ended the lovely day with a BBQ at a friends house and then watching fireworks.  Here's some pictures of our sparkler fun. Somehow I did not get a photo of Aidan with his, but here's the other kids. 

Isabella was a bit scared of hers, look at her concentrating on it.  Unfortunately, she later burnt her thumb on a sparkler.