Fabulous Fourth

we had here in phx.  even though we weren't watching fireworks from the beach like we were last year, it was still a fabulous day here...

we all rode our decorated bikes from our house to the neighborhood park for a traditional 4th of july parade followed by food, fun and festivities at the park...

ella got a lot of compliments on her headband...

then it was home for swimming and naps...

followed by a fun evening (including more swimming) at nani's.  this is what we were greeted with when we walked up to nani's house...

she had the great idea of playing bingo for a special activity that we could all do together. john-john kept calling it 'mango'.

we used the beans for our markers and we all put coins in a bowl each game, and whoever won the game won the coins too.

i just have to say that nani was an excellent letter & number caller (really enthusiastic which made it really funny) and she is on the phone in this picture because she got a call from her friend to plan the time we were going to get together to watch fireworks....just had to add that bit of info since she's on the phone here and the call only lasted a couple minutes!

my brother john and christopher were the big winners - they each won 2 games...

nani has had this throw since we were young, i thought it looked so festive on her couch...

ella made some fourth of july decorations for our house one day while she was at her aunt cathy's house...

they made this pendant garland simply by hot gluing the fabric triangles to a piece of string...

nani's friend has a beautiful home that sits up on a mountain and she invited us over to watch fireworks.  john was scared (really scared...screaming) for the first couple minutes of the show.  then, he warmed up and loved them - safely from his mama's lap.