Team Barrios: July 4th

I absolutely LOVE the 4th of July! Love, love, love it! Maybe because it's so close to my birthday and growing up Mom and Dad always told me that the fireworks were for me, or maybe it is because everyone gets together for bbq, swimming and day drinking. There is no pressure for getting people presents. Everyone is always in a good mood, the sun stays up longer, kids splash around in baby pools and drink out of hoses. Whatever the reason, it's a great holiday, and this year was by far one of the best! The girls and I went down to Houston for a long weekend. Sadly Justin couldn't join us (again) because he had to work. I picked up the girls on friday after I got off work and headed down to Melissa's house. It was storming pretty bad, but that worked in our favor because we didn't hit any holiday traffic. When we got to Melissa's house I was surprised by my brother and his girlfriend Melinda, they had flown out for the weekend. I was so excited to see them! Saturday we had a backyard bbq party at Melissa's house and invited lots of family and friends. We had a great turnout even though the weather threatened rain all day. The kiddos swam in the backyard in 3 pools. I think they had a blast!

On the 4th we atarted out the day at the pool. Melissa and Matt's community pool is super awesome. It has a little kid area with a baby pool and a splash pad!

After swimming we got all cleaned up and headed over to the Club with my parents. They know how to put on a party there! They had a little carnival in the front for the kids (and the gr-ups) with a train a spinny ride, bouncey house galore and a fun slide. There were face painters, a balloon guy and a man on stilts. It was awesome. The giant buffet was awesome too. I ate way too much!

After dinner was over and we had filled ourselves to the gills we all settled on a couple of blankets on the golf course and watched the firework show. Leila thought the fireworks were awesome. The whole time she was sitting on Oma's lap ohhing and awwing. Emmalene on the other hand did not think they were awesome, she thought they were horribly loud and scarry. She cried for the first half of the show. She finally stopped crying and just stared at them wide-eyed, flinching every time there was a boom.