Not Just ANY Celebration!

It's THE celebration! The 4th of July in Kanarra is FABULOUS and I find myself wishing away time as it approaches because I LOVE it!!

Ella ready for a 4-wheeler ride!  Woo-hoo!

Clint and Lily!  Watch the progression...

...on the way up...

...on the way down... (check out the face  ;o))

SHE LOVES IT!

I think he's confused about which holiday he's celebrating!!  CONFUSED!

I had to catch the lilies, too.  They're beautiful... but what I was really after... well, you'll see!  ;o)

Cute girls playing... but not just that... wait for it...

Ahhh!  There it is!

Lexi and Emma!  (And a little something extra!  Haha!)

Award-Winning float preparation!  Tamie and Colleen

Ella, Colleen, Tamie, and Mom

Hmmm... isn't that the BABY swing, Braeden???????

As patriotic as we can be!!  Notice Braeden just can't even wait through the time it takes for the shutter on the camera before he starts spraying his silly string!  Love that stuff... NOT!  But it sure is fun for the kids!  Lexi, Caroline, and Braeden... cute kids!

In honor of Bud Williams!  Let's GO!  It's hard to think about the 4th without him! 

Lily and Emma

Caroline and Lexi... wave those pieces of cardboard, girls!

It's hard to explain, but with all the pieces of the flag together like this, we waved them in and out... hence... a "star-spangled banner waving"... get it!  We did actually win a big thing of fireworks! 

And I had to recruit a lot of willing... and not-so-willing participants to get it all to work!  Thanks everyone!

And I conned Seth and Jonathan into being the drivers for me!  Thanks!

Perfect for the job, don't you think?  Cutie!



Tyler driving the fire engine!  I love small town celebrations!



Lexi and Caroline on the giant stride with a mess of other kids they didn't know after the parade.

Cheryl on the piano playing the military tribute.  A very well LOVED tradition, and with the exception of only a few years that I can remember, Cheryl has come home and played.

This is where I have to explain who Bud was!  He was the emcee for the town program FOR-E-VER and was so well loved.  He would wave the flag and yell "Let's GO!!" when the fiddlers played, and though he wasn't the first to start the tradition, he was THE ONE, you know... the one that you will never forget!  So it was more than heart-warming when... 

... his son, John, stood and took his place.  Not a dry eye in the house!  NOT ONE!

Afternoon activities start out with a... BANG!!  ;o)  Father and son... with a potato cannon!  Oh the fun I'm sure we'll have in the years to come!

Hmmm...

Good hair!

Not-so-good hair!

Pop-It's + Silly String = MESS to clean up!

I'm the papparazi and Christie is the star out looking for her dog and trying to dodge the camera!  J/K... but she was looking for the other dog!

_________________________________________________________

Happiness comes in many forms, but one of those is...

a water slide in the hot summer sun!!  Thanks to Angell's mom for letting us borrow this again!  It provides literally hours of fabulous entertainment!!

Ready... set...

Splash!!

Then WATCH OUT, 'cause Braeden can't wait another second!  Luckily she thought it was pretty funny!

Lexi is such a great helper... most of the time!  She's trying to help Emma so that she'll try it one more time!

Ella's a little apprehensive her first couple of times, but after that... there's almost nothing that can stop her!

Hello FEET!  ;o)

Shouldn't she be totally drenched... by the looks of the last picture??  I guess not!

Jump/bouncing down the slide for Braeden, who can't just do anything simply anymore!

SPLASH is an understatement!

Monkey see, monkey do.

Totally worth it, and going to jump AGAIN!

Caroline's too fast.  She was never at the top for more than a nanosecond!

Happy to have made it through and on her way for more!

Joy!

Emma's indecision about whether or not to risk it one more time is causing a traffic jam!  ;o)

Tamie comforting Emma and Cornell just happpy to be there!

Need anything be said??

I always find that in my posting I leave out a lot of my personal feelings and experiences, but I also ALWAYS find that when I look at the pictures I choose to post (the ones that bring fond and happy memories, instead of the day to day grind that sometimes gets me down) I remember why I so wanted to become a mother, and why I try to endure those days that I find myself more down than up!  The smiles and moments captured with my camera give me the motivation to try it again... and again... and again... day after day!  I love them... and I especially love their smiles!

**You must pay CLOSE attention to the next series of pictures!  One of my favorite moments of the day was watching this happen, and though there were more than 3 pictures, I took the first, one from the middle, and the very last to make it come to life for you!  Giggle if you like... I do every time!  Sorry, Emma, for laughing at your plight!**  (By the way... it's a piece of cheese!)

THAT'S ENOUGH!  :o)

I have to admit that these two were my favorite subjects for the day.  They were great friends by the end of the night and Ella still talks about how nice Emma was to her!

Me and Ella... ready for a good luau!  (Fake grass skirt and ALL!)

Even the littlest at the party tried... and LOVED the slide!  Clint helping his cute Lily down!  (Though she has no fear and could probably have done it on her own!)

LOVE it!

Hunter and Jenny!  It was only a year ago TO DATE that she and Christie were both pregnant, sitting in the back yard smelling candy bar diapers at their family baby shower!  Welcome to your first of many 4th of July celebrations in Kanarra... both Hunter and Lily!!

Hmmmm... What is Lexi doing??  One may never know, and I've stopped asking...

Clint helping Hunter...

...and the verdict is???  I think it's safe to say:  he LIKED it... not that he LOVED it, but he may try it again next year!  Haha!

Lily CRACKS me UP!

Now that's better!  We love Hunter's smile!

Clint and Cash

Gma Pam and Ella!

T-R-O-U-B-L-E is spelled like this:  Damian + Cody + DRY ICE!!  (This is also one of those forms in which happiness comes for some!)

How sad is it that when Ella sees them going by with BIG smiles and bottles she just knows to do this and wait it out!!  Haha!

The aftermath.  I guess at least they were trying to clean up some of the trash!

And as if just having dry ice bombs wasn't enough... now they're digging large holes for them... and filling it with water.  Sigh!  Cody's giving the thumbs up...

This pool was set up for the little ones... yet look who's enjoying it the most!  I love Lexi... and her stringy wet hair!

Taylie decides to try it out!

Her hair is sooooo long!

This is a bad combo if I've ever seen one.  The mixing of food and explosive making.  I hope I didn't ingest any black powder.  ;o)

Damian hand carving a coconut.



My favorite part of the menu... regardless of what else is on it!  Homemade ice cream!  Well... and the fabulous lady making it!  Gma Pam... in her LOVELY muumuu!  (Though I do have to admit that the rest of the food was FABULOUS, too.  Especially the pulled pork!  Yummmmmy!)



Ooops!  Braeden ran into Aunt Tamie, and more importantly the punch bowl she was carrying... and out came... a TOOTH!

This may help you understand a little better about how serious (in a fun way) the Liebhardt's are about their homemade "fireworks"!  Nick has hooked an explosive up to a remote.  Sigh... they're too smart for their own good!

Lexi and Caroline picking out their favorites before they give the others out!!  Nothing makes a luau like plastic leis!  They add lots of GREAT COLOR for my pictures!

Lei's are here, lei's are there, colorful plastic lei's are EVERYWHERE!

Ella... and MORE junk food!  Mmmmmmm!

Lily and Jonathan

Yep... even I can still hula-hoop!  Amazing, I know!  But Lexi is still better than me!  (And Tiffy is actually AMAZING, though I don't have a pic to prove it this time.  Sorry!)

Even Braeden joined in, but he gets embarrassed doing this because he thinks it's a GIRL thing to do.  Still... he's good at it!

Great-Gma, Momma Linda, Jonathan, Cody and Emma on the porch, Shannon, Ben, Tamie and hiding Cornell behind Linda

Ben is showing off his fancy, and EXPENSIVE luau attire!  (It was $1!)

Dad, Nick's friend, Garrett, and Nick

Megan (who is making a futile attempt to cover her baby bump), Tiffy, Mom, Colleen, and Heather

Clint, Braeden, Christie, Damian, Lexi, Caroline, and Lily!

This is Lily's impersonation of Mowgli doing the elephant walk!  Makes me smile when I think about how silly she looked!  Cutie-pie!

Love these two!  My mom and Colleen!  Sisters!

Clint bribing Ella for her friendship!  Haha!

I'm fairly positive this is CHEATING, Ella!  WAAAAAAYYYYY too CLOSE and WAAAYYY over the line!

... and I'm pretty sure you shouldn't get a prize for cheating, BUT... she did make it in... and that's what Gma's are for, huh??  ;o)

Nick is so talented!  He can eat the traditional homemade ice cream AND hula-hoop at the SAME time!!  (We have homemade ice cream EVERY year... no matter what else is on the menu... ice cream never gets replaced!!)

See... real men hula-hoop!  Clint

This is what you call EXTREME Hula-hooping!  Ella... could possible have ended up in the ER for either neck or arm... but she got lucky!

Happy guy with his gma!  Momma Linda and Jonathan!

Remember the pile of junk being swept up?  Yep... it's from the first round of this!  POP-IT'S!!!  Love those!  Ella and Emma could have destroyed a small village with them if we'd have had just a few more packages!

The only one's who really know how to hula.  Momma Linda, Gail... and apparently Jonathan!

I'm not sure that Tamie won the hula contest... but she put on a FABULOUS show!  It makes me giggle a little every time I see these pictures of her.  I had to choose my fav... 'cause there's a... FEW!

A happy hostess!  Thanks, Mom, for the best day of the year!  I think I still love the 4th of July even more than Christmas!  STILL!  It's ALWAYS been my favorite holiday!   LOVE!

Ella and Emma

Lexi and Caroline taking a break to gas up on more SUGAR!  MUST KEEP GOING.....!  ;o)

I would say this is pretty normal for us.  Sad, but true!  I'm smiling... totally oblivious at how ridiculous WE look most of the time!  I'm just happy to be around... and Damian... well, we all still call him Grumpy!  But maybe Dopey would fit better in this particular situation!  Haha!  J/K, honey... I love you!!

I honestly don't understand how any of the kids... let alone these two little girls had enough energy left to even keep their eyes open by this point... BUT there's no stopping when there's more to do and a good swingset to play on!  Emma and Ella

It very well may have been a luau... but at least my mom had some patriotic tiki torches!

The loot for a good show!

Watch the grass skirt, Lexi! 

Emma

Braeden, it is not such a great idea to take a happy space cruise with fire in your hand!

I've decided that there should have been a picture of me with a sparkler.  I would have looked much more excited than Damian does... I LOVE sparklers.  And I love writing my name in the air with them when it's dark.  ;o)

How many pyros does it take to light the grand finale??  Cody, Damian...

... and Clint! 

Flirting with the danger of EXPLODING along with all the other fireworks!! 

The Grand Finale!!  It looked so much better in person than it does in this picture.  :o)

Ella... sparkler in one hand, candy in the other.  And yes, she had a bandage around one hand last year, too.  She's a bruiser!

What a nice Daddy... taking care of all 3 at the same time!

Ella GIVING kisses to Gpa!

Lexi GETTING kisses from Gma Pam!



The size of the candy ring around one's mouth determines how great the day was!  Looks like this one tops everything else for the year!  That's one thing about Ella... she's a junk food JUNKY!!!