Happy (belated) 4th of July

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend!  Our was lovely, fun, and exhausting!  We had a fairly relaxing day on Friday, squeezing in some time at the pool in between cleaning and baking a cake for Nick's birthday and party on Saturday.  We are fortunate to be able to see some local fireworks from the comfort of our front porch, so we didn't have to stray too far that night!

Saturday was Nick's 7th birthday and we celebrated with a backyard BBQ/pool party with our family and friends.  He requested a Despicable Me 2 birthday party, so we had Minions galore.  They are so darn cute so it was fun to decorate with the Minions!

Minion cake, yum!

My friend, Mary, found a great how-to online for a Minion cake and it turned out super cute!  Check it out here if you are in the need for a Minion cake.  We are very blessed to have wonderful family and friends who love Nick and came out to help him celebrate.  Thank you all for making it such a special day!

After the party (and a little nap!), we went out to dinner to celebrate and had a second round of cake and presents.  Then we headed to see our second fireworks show for the weekend!  Nick loves that the fireworks always fall around his birthday; one of the perks of being born the day after the 4th of July.  I adore fireworks and the 4th of July, so we always try to see as many as we can.  The show on the 5th was a bit shorter than the night before, but it was far less crowded than it would have been had we ventured out on the 4th, and the weather was beautiful, so it was pretty perfect.  Nick said This is the best birthday party ever!  7th birthday = success!

Love the awe on this 7 year old's face!

Today, we had a pretty relaxing day after all of the birthday festivities, but we did spend a few hours at the pool, which was lovely.

I somewhat unintentionally took yesterday and today as rest days, even though my training plan called for 3 miles yesterday and 5 today.  I figure hustling and bustling getting ready for the party, walking to and from the fireworks, and swimming for several hours this weekend count for something!  

"You can protect your liberties in this world only by protecting the other man's freedom.  You can be free only if I am free."