Zane's 4th Birthday / Fourth of July

I love the 4th of July, especially now that I get to celebrate my little guy's birthday too. We had so much fun on the 3rd, going out to eat with Nell and Ant and Jord and Ben, and then we went to Erie for a celebration and fireworks. They had huge bounce houses and slides. Emmy and Zane were both fearless and wanted to do everything! They acted like they were at a huge amusement park. We read that the fireworks were supposed to start at 8:30, but that was wrong info because they didn't start until almost 10:00. With traffic and everything, we didn't get home till almost midnight. I felt like such a bad mom, but luckily the kids had so much fun and were super happy the whole night and then fell asleep in the car.
On the 4th, we just hung out as a family. We ran some fun errands, played at home, and then set up a tent in the backyard to "camp" in. We played, read, and ate dinner in it and thought about sleeping there but decided not to because of all the crazy fireworks going off all evening and night. We also made a simple cake for Zane (he made it and decorated it) and he opened his new pirate ship from us and my sisters.

Zane's special pre-birthday dinner and icecream.
Emmy and Zane had to wait in line for their turn on the bounce houses - oh the anticipation!


Climbing up the big slide. They were soooo excited.

Emmy with Zack

Zane planned on going face first but I thought he'd change his mind once he got to the top but he went for it!

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Fearless little girl climbing up huge stairs - dad could barely keep up. :)


Waiting in our spot for the fireworks. The kids ran around us in circles for about a half an hour, just cracking up.

We got to spend the evening with my sister Janelle, and her husband Anthony.
To help pass the time, the kids were showing off their big muscles...

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After the fireworks, super late at night.

On the 4th, the kids at Zane's birthday cake for breakfast. Hey, at least they ate fruit with it.
They also got a vanilla cream frappuccino later. Notice Zane's birthday pin - a tradition.



Setting up the tent with Zack.




Zane almost never falls asleep during the day anymore, but he was so worn out from the fireworks and his fun day that he zonked on the couch.
He woke up in the morning singing "Happy Birthday" to himself and ended the day singing it again when the rest of us sang with his birthday cake.

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Unwrapping his gift from us.
He was shouting hooray!
They wanted to play all night with the new pirate ship.