Fourth of July - An Anniversary for CiCi

We have had such a busy weekend, but I could not let this day pass without mentioning that last year on the Fourth of July CiCi entered the US for the first time. When adopted internationally the moment you hit US soil you become a US citizen. I think it is absolutely the coolest thing ever that CiCi became a citizen of the United States on the Fourth of July. It also makes for a great day to celebrate her Forever Family Day. And boy did we celebrate. Not formally and not as a specific party for her (at least not this year since she doesn't understand it) but we had so much fun with friends and our kids had an action-packed weekend.



Not great pictures but these were taken right after CiCi was sworn in as a citizen in a tiny room in the Houston Airport.



We spend every Fourth of July with friends of ours from my DH's law school days. One family lives in town and we are the best of friends and see a lot of each other. The other family lives on the other side of our long state and we only see them a few times each year, but always have such a great time together.

On Friday the kids swam, rode bikes, and even attempted a lemonade stand. The lemonade stand made all the adults sad. We could not believe how many people drove by without stopping. This was in a neighborhood, not on a busy street. Many cars drove by multiple times without stopping and I tell you the kids were trying so hard to get customers. They were holding signs and yelling. The girls even got out pom poms. Everyone seemed too busy. Many were talking on cell phones. Some waved but kept on driving. The only people who actually stopped were direct neighbors and a few people we called because we felt so bad for our kids. It was a holiday for goodness sake. Couldn't they slow down their busy lives on a holiday and do something to make a dozen kids happy?




Anyway...

Eventually the dads took the big kids bowling during nap time for the little ones, then we ate dinner and blew off some of our own fireworks. The biggest hit being ones that propelled parachutes into the air. We had all the kids back up far away and then when we said go they could race to catch the parachute on its way down. They had a blast with this and fortunately we had enough for each child to get their own parachute.




Running for the parachutes



CiCi in heaven with the puppy



Playing in the dirt



Kissing the baby. CiCi is very into babies right now and gets so excited whenever she sees one. It is so cute to me.



Then it was time to watch the actual town fireworks. We have a great view of them from our friends house which we discovered many years ago making their house the annual Fourth of July party house. We even brought CiCi to his house last year after only being home for a few hours. (She had a lot more fun this year :)