4th of July shenanigans

I love the Fourth of July, it is by far my favorite holiday. Growing up with parents working in politics the 4th was always a busy time we would attend three parades that day, not counting the one or two we did the day before. If you were super lucky you got to ride in the convertible and throw candy. It was always a fun time that might be capped with swimming and a BBQ and fireworks, there were always fireworks. I love celebrating the fourth. I love spending time with family and friends celebrating the freedoms this country provides.So here is how we celebrated this fourth...

Cul-de-sac of fire. We had fun with friends and we had fun with neighbors
as we attended the neighborhood firework show. It even came with a fun
BBQ this year. It was fun just spending time with family and friends and enjoying
each others company.  I love my neighborhood

We only had two munchkins this year so the matchy shirt picture
was a little small, plus we wanted to get it before Abby drooled or spilled
over her shirt. 

Our annual breakfast out. Matt enjoyed some chocolate pancakes

As a little girl I always remember looking at this cake in magazines
and wishing that I could have it. Now I make it every year and it is my
favorite. 

 Christian got a smoker for Father's Day and really wanted to smoke a brisket so we invited our neighbors and family over for dinner. We had fabulous smoked brisket and great side dishes that everyone brought. It was fun to be together and enjoy great food. Later we had fireworks and had a rather scary moment. One of the fireworks decided to malfunction and send some explosions right at us. There were a couple of small burns and singed clothing but everyone seemed to be okay, if rattled.  We're still not sure what happened as the firework was was still standing up and everything appeared normal but it was a our scary moment of the night (well that and a tiki torch catching fire earlier in the night...it was rather eventful).

Matt and his cousin Sophie playing with Pop-its

Our gathering for dinner

Abby had already had to be bathed before the cake came out. I can
tell by her face she quite enjoyed the cake this time around. 

Relaxing and enjoying the fireworks. 

The older kids came home on Tuesday morning so we recreated the 4th for them, minus the firework mishap. They even had left over brisket and cake!

Pop-it time! 

Matt creates a new super hero - Termite man

Matt lit his first firework this year...I lit my first one too

Termite man evolved throughout the night- we love glowsticks here 

December Fun

This post is late in posting, I meant many times to put this up in December...yeah we were just having too much fun to do that. December is always a busy animal and here is just a glimpse of what we did over the holiday month:

CRAFTING

We did a lot of crafting in December. In fact Eve went to town with her 100 rolls of washi tape.  Matt did quite a bit of it in preschool. He was enamored of his gingerbread house and was upset at the end of the month when it was time to go the great gingerbread house in the sky. 

ZOO LIGHTS! 

This is one of our favorite traditions and we were lucky to go at the start of the month before it was too busy and too cold. 

Um, James has gone missing....it's like Where's Waldo here. 

The kids were so happy to have Grammy and Poppa with them this year....and to walk down the light tunnel. 

It was Star Wars Night! Matt was so happy to get to see Darth Vader

BRADLEY FAMILY PARTY

We love this party with Christian's extended family every year. This year it was at a roller rink. The kids had fun skating and I had fun visiting. 

Abby and Grandma matched that day. 

Christian was a good sport and helped Matt out skating for the first time. 

CHRISTMAS EVE

After a week of playing with our cousins, going to the trampoline park, ice skating, and sledding it was time for Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Bradley's- complete with tamales and the nativity. 

The Angel chorus

Little Shepherd boys. James was their sheep but wouldn't hold still long enough for a picture

The kids came home to the traditional PJ gift and picture. I was super excited that I found matching PJs this year, it is hard than you would think when you have to get everything from a 13 year old down to 6 months. 

CHRISTMAS

Christmas morning got off to a rocky start. I had been up with a vomiting baby at 3 am and then the dog and Matt decided that they too needed to throw up. Once that was all taken care of and everyone seemed okay we got to have fun seeing the packages under the tree. 

The kids all got blankets this year and had fun wrapping up in them right away

Abby seemed happy with her new seat and playing with the super cool paper. The other kids seemed to have fun helping her open her gifts. 

We spent Christmas afternoon at Grammy and Poppa's house. Abby was happy about that...so were the rest of us. 

NEW YEAR'S EVE

We had a fun week between Christmas and New Year's being together. Christian took the week off of work and we took the kids to Star Wars and they enjoyed playing Disney Infinity all week long. We also played plenty of board games.  On New Year's Eve we had the traditional Bradley dinner of fondue...Christian even did a chocolate one this year, 

Sticks to poke bread...sounds like a great idea. 

After playing some games we came downstairs to watch Doctor Who and Super Girl, we told the kids they could stay up as late as they wanted, Matt made it till 11:58. The rest of us toasted the New Year together and then all wandered to our beds. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERY ONE! 

Grinning Ghosts Come Out to Socialize!

As a kid I remember that Halloween really was one day. You wore your costume for the school party and then later for trick-or-treating. If you were lucky there might be another party that you could wear your costume for but that was only if you were super lucky.  It seems my kids are wearing their costumes to many things during the month of October, I really like that, I think it is a lot more fun. 

Red Riding Hood, Katniss Everdeen, Supergirl, Ninja, and Spiderman

My kids started planning their costumes way back in August, I think that is when I bought Matt's (Thanks Prime Day, you may have sucked for everyone else but I got an awesome Spidey costume out of it-oh and diaper wipes) and the other kids poured through catalogs their mom had sent to pick the right one. So come October 1st we were ready.

Our first celebration was with Matt's preschool. Because his teacher was going to be gone over Halloween he celebrated a week early- it was awesome. 

I loved the abundance of super heroes...gotta love 4 year olds. 

Then a week before we had our traditional Bradley Family Spooky food party. There was so much delicious food- it was incredible. Plus the kids had a lot of fun. 

I love the kids with all of their cousins. So many friends, it is great.  

Abby was a pretty good sport, I think she enjoyed the attention. 

I went back and forth and got opinions on Abby's costume this year. We ended up with Supergirl but those who voted for Wonder Woman, fear no. That costume is currently in her closet waiting to be pulled out for Comic Con this spring. Yes, I do realize that my children have absolutely no chance.

We did the ward Trunk or treat the week before Halloween. The kids had fun getting a ton of candy and playing with friends.

Have I mentioned the little kids and super hero thing? 

So we were procrastinating parents this year. We bought our pumpkins on Halloween (we tried to grow them but due to a variety of circumstances we did not get one pumpkin this year), we had to go to two different stores to actually find pumpkins to carve and we were picking the bottom of the barrel there. Lesson learned.

Laine got her pumpkin cleaned out and ready to go before everyone else. 

Matt cleaned out most of his pumpkin on his own. Just a little help from parents.

Eve had a great design but quickly learned that you need more than a sliver of pumpkin between the Jack-o-Lantern's nose and mouth. 

James picked a pumpkin that had trouble standing up (bottom of the barrel, remember?). So he got creative and carved it on it's side. 

After pumpkins were carved we went and trick-or-treated the many grandparents. The kids love it

Trick or treat!!!

..I think the grandparents do too.

Hello, we're here on a top secret mission to collect all the world's candy. 

We finished out our Halloween celebrations with a party with some of our Bellamy family, topped off with Trick-or-Treating with cousins

Even Grammy and Poppa got in on the the fun.

So happy Halloween from my little goblins and ghouls...and thanks for the sweet treats!

Happy Halloween

 Happy Halloween!!! I remember Halloween growing up and really it was just Halloween anything happened. Now it is a month long celebration, not that my kids seem to mind and I am just happy we get more than one use out of the costumes.

We did have a few Halloween activities packed in this week and it started with a Halloween party. Even Matty had fun making spooky pumpkin patches. He was so proud he made the "dirt", added the cookies, and placed the pumpkins.

 The cousin party was fun. We had two Olafs, Two Annas, Two Elsas, and a Jedi. I would like to point out that they are all owned by Disney now so I feel that they all fit together. But yes Frozen mania had entered our house. The kids decided six months ago what they wanted to be. We tried to show them other costumes and they stuck firm. Laine did change her mind but by then the costumes had been ordered so it was too late to change. It all worked out though, and they looked cute.

The Halloween Parade was fun this year. Matty was so excited to see his brother that he tackle hugged him in line. He was very upset that he couldn't go with him through the line. 

We carved our pumpkins, this year using templates. I loved it. So easy and awesome. 

Halloween means trick or treating to grandparents, we visited five this year. The kids loved it and I think the grandparents enjoyed it too. 

So happy Halloween from our Frozen clan to yours. 

Oh and if anyone needs any candy, come visit. I'll trade you the peanut butter cups for Bottle Caps.