4th of July Fun

4th of July was a very busy day for us! We woke up and drove up to New Castle to drop off the dogs, and then we headed out to two cookouts (first was with family, second with friends). When we got back to my parents' house late that evening, we set off some fireworks (which Lew was pretty scared of) and called it a day. The rest of our weekend was much more laid back and relaxing and unseasonably cool, which was lovely. 

First, pictures from the 1st cookout at Paula and Tim's house. Lewis and Mathilda played so (unbelievably) well together the whole time. They are sweeties to one another. Mathilda introduced her doll to Lewis as Cinderella, and I think that confused him--he was calling Mathilda, Cinderella, most of the afternoon. :) Close enough.

 Lew likes to grab the corn hole bags and run them right up to the hole to toss them in.

If people were really playing, he also likes to just grab them randomly off the boards, which most people (understandably) don't appreciate. :) 

 Playing chase

 Buddies :)

 Visiting the Greyhounds (that one is Ozzy, I think)

My aunt and uncle have four of them, plus Dietgard brought hers over.

 Checking out Uncle Jim's Mustang with the other guys :)

Next, it was onto Don and Brenda's house for more food and swimming and cows and gator rides:

 Lew spent most of his pool time floating around, asking to be pushed around.

He didn't seem as interested in swimming that day (maybe because it was a little cool outside)--rather, he wanted to see the cows (THERE ARE BABY COWS!) and play with the other kids.

There is a toy tractor that he was pedaling around, and then the real Gator came out and Lewis' day was made. Will took a bunch of kids and I on the first ride around the property, and then I switched with another mom while Lewis rode around with them a second time. We went down to see the cows (3 adults and 2 babies), visited the neighbors' chickens, and went to see a huge, freshly cut hay bale.

Beyond excited :)

I had Lewis on one knee and sweet Cora on the other at first, but then Lew decided he wanted to ride in the back instead. I still got to ride with Cora who was such a sweetheart.

This is her big sister, Avery, who is also such a sweet girl:

The look on Avery's face KILLS me. :) Like, 'Boy, what on Earth are you doing?'

Hahaha and then Lewis' face here!! It's too much.

I'm crying from laughing so hard. Phew!

We thought we might make it home in time to see the big fireworks show in town, but we took longer getting back than expected. Gramma Pat had bought some fireworks, so we set those off in the street. I'm not sure how Lew would have done at the big show, but he was not a fan of the little show we had in the street:

His reaction to the first one started out as excitement but quickly went to 'All done, I want to go inside' as the pops and booms happened.

He went inside and watched mostly out of the window, but he did come back out for a few (short) minutes towards the end. He had no interest in sparklers, either. No, thank you! Maybe next year.