Fourth of July Weekend

This July Fourth was a little unusual for the Sooy Kids in that we didn't go to any parades and we didn't see any fireworks.  Since Hurricane Arthur was busy churning off the coast and sending rainstorms our way, the towns in our area postponed most of the Fourth festivities.  That didn't ruin our long weekend, though!

Instead of fireworks on Thursday night, we went out to a new ice cream shop that opened up by us...

and we watched a storm roll in:

When we got home, we had a movie night ("Robots") and the kids went to bed, with visions of the beach dancing in their heads.  But first thing Friday morning, Mommy ran a 5K race under very cloudy skies...

 Luckily the rain held out, only sprinkling a little before all-raining on our way to the BEACH!  It rained at the beach most of the day on Friday, which was great for watching soccer but the kids were a little restless. So, we bird-watched, colored, played games and dominoes, and snacked.

And we cleaned:

And watched the "dunking bird":

The skies eventually cleared, though and we were able to have our own sort of fireworks with sparklers!

These jumbo-sized sparklers came courtesy of Uncle Peter & Aunt Andrea - leftovers from their wedding!

The next morning was clear, cool, and bright. We had breakfast and played on Grummy and Pop Pop's deck...

...and in the hammocks:

Clare loves to relax in the hammock...

...while Sean treats the hammocks - especially the "pea pod" hammock - like an amusement park ride:

After spending time at the beach on Saturday, we had a Fourth of July party at Grummy and Pop Pop's house with Grandma and PaPa, too!  After dinner, Mom-Mom Jackie gave the kids a fishing lesson:

She showed the kids how to thread a worm on the hook, how to cast the line, and how to wait...

and it turns out we didn't have to wait very long - the area around the dock was teeming with fish! Mostly sunfish:

Sean liked petting the sunnies - Clare was hesitant:

We caught several sunnies, but always put them back in the lake.

Sean loved everything about it - the worms, the fish, the rod - everything! Clare took awhile to warm up but soon she was getting close to the worms and petting the fish, as well!

A snap of Sean's very first fish:

And then Uncle Peter caught a bass! 

Mom-Mom Jackie set about cleaning the fish but... it flopped off the deck and swam away.  Clare burst into tears!  We thought she was upset about Mom-Mom Jackie cleaning the fish, but it turns out she was upset about not getting fish for breakfast the next morning!

After all the fishing excitement was over, we had another sparkler show before saying good night.

The next morning we watched the Wimbledon final while enjoying strawberries and cream:

And we had another afternoon at the beach followed by beach-chair-fort-time in the driveway:

And Mommy and Daddy got to play mini-golf!

It was a good long weekend, celebrating America's birthday!