4th of July Celebrations!

We decided to just stay home this year for Independence Day.  West Point has a fun filled day.  We sorta slept in, but we did make it to the parade as it was starting.  Lily caught on really quickly when it came to picking up the candy.  Avery just had a blast with all the other kids we were with.

Then we headed over to the park for the fun and FREE games they had.  Avery really liked the bouncy toys, Lily not so much.

 Later in the day we had a fun picnic/bbq at our friends house.  There was the litattle swimming pools and a slip and slide!  We all ate so much and wore ourselves out that everyone (including adults) fell asleep after and missed the free dinner at the park before the fireworks.

Lily with her friends that are about 9 months older than her.  They were "washing" her hair, and she loved it (for a while anyway)

 After we all woke up from our naps, we headed back to the park for the fireworks.  There were a few technical difficulties, but the show was pretty awesome for being a "small" town.  Lily liked them, but was a little scared of them.

being silly boys

hanging with the other kids

Lily loved the older girls

Not the best picture, but Lily watching the fireworks.  She tried to grab them.

We sure had a fun-filled day of celebration.  However, our favorite memory that we won't forget is this:

Avery learned how to ride his bike with no training wheels!  We've tried a couple of times a couple of months ago, but he was too scared to really try.  Today he asked if he could go learn how to, so we took him over to a parking lot to let him try.  I (Amanda) wasn't even fully how of the car when Avery took off!  Brian held him for half a second and Avery did it on his first try that day!  Before 10 minutes were up he could start riding (from a stopped position) without Brian's help.  He actually learned how to get up on the bike by himself because he was really far away from us when he stopped, but he managed to figure out how to get started before we got to him.  We are such proud parents!  Now that is all he wants to do (forget about the fireworks).  We sure do love our Avery!

Getting on the bike by himself.