God Bless America

Well I thought about throwing in the towel.  After all I barely hit half of my plans this week cause I was busy....

HAVING A BABY!!! Meet my son, Jack! Born on July 2!

 

So I spent a lot of time staring at this...

 

And taking pictures of his squishy lips! Love him!

 

Before he arrived we did:

 

Patriotic Mani-pedis!

 

Sidewalk chalk and coloring pages! My Sophie just learned how to draw stars so she was pumped to do all 50!

 We used this idea to dress up like the statue of liberty

 

My ladies' Liberty

 

I attempted a cute Pinterest dinner: Firecracker dogs. We didn't have a star cookie cutter so we couldn't quite pull it off but I don't think it was as bad as a Pinterest-fail!

 

They made similar wind whirler's out of paper plates  (I am finding you can do a lot with paper plates!)

 

I also had the girls write letters to soldiers to say thanks for their service.

One day they played Super Heroes and dressed with capes and masks and built a fort in their room to be their secret headquarters. 

For our maternity photo shoot we were going with a baseball theme as we have been planning a Detroit Tigers nursery for little Jack, as it turned out we, meaning me, are a bit of the last minute and I was basically in early labor while we got our pictures taken (I was deeper in denial than I was in labor haha!) Anyways I figure what is more American than baseball, it kind of fits into our theme, we had fun running around the diamond and Charlotte was in love with chasing the baseballs, maybe she will be a first baseman like her Momma!

So after the big event on Thursday the patriotic activities were reduced to whatever we could easily go to without much planning. Because a main activity of the last few days was this...

 

Yes there is a baby in there being pawed by three girls! This is a full time for job for these three, taking turns holding and petting this tolerant little guy.

 

 

On the 4th my parents took my older girls overnight and they got to go to a the parade in the morning.  This got my husband and I and the two littler ones some much needed rest and quiet at home and didn't make me feel like the worst mom because they still got to have some fun holiday memories. 

 

Then dressed all in red white and blue we went off too our annual family party, I didn't last the whole time but we had fun, got to see my fam and introduce the newest member.  And the kids got to swim and see their cousins so I was glad we went. 

 

Then that night the older girls caught some neighborhood fireworks from the front porch.  They were a little disappointed at first but seemed to be satisfied with that.  Transitioning a new baby into the house is always hectic.  And as much fun as it will be in years to come to celebrate a birthday along with such a fun holiday as the 4th it made it feel a little tricky this year.  Maybe it's just that "Mom guilt" that we all fall victim to, and of course mixed in with a large dose of post-natal hormones. So many of the activities and crafts planned for this week didn't come to fruition.  Who knows maybe we will do a couple for Labor day otherwise there is always next year!? What does really bum me out though is the patriotic recipes I missed, some of my favorite standbys that I never miss.  I think I will make them next week anyways because I can't resist. So I will share what we make if I can pull them off.  Next week is "Wet and Wild" week.  Anticipating we would have the baby by now and that my hubby would be home for the week I purposely picked this week with a lot of fun things he could do with the big kids. Then he can be the one to get messy with the kids and I can pay attention to the babe and take pictures! Should be fun!