4th of July Fun!

We had a fantastic long weekend. Very rarely does Matt get a holiday off but due to being out of town for some meetings the week before he got to be off on Friday. So it was a wonderful weekend at the Eckley household. Saturday was a low key day for us. Nothing too exciting. We went to our normal breakfast at Panera and then did some things around the house. We ate lunch at my parent's house and then got ready for our big neighborhood block party. This started last year and it was a great success so they had it again this year. All the neighbors get together and bring food and we grill out and have pools and slides for the kids. The kids all bring their bikes and decorate them for the 4th and have a parade down the street. And then it ends with a big fireworks show (well as big as you get on your street - it is illegal by the way which freaked me out). It was lots of fun and of course Ben had a blast!!! There were probably 75-100 of our neighbors there so it was fun to meet some new people and visit with our friends. Here are some fun pics from the day!

Ben being patriotic waving his flag!

Ben went down the big water slide a couple of times but then was ready for some splashing in the baby pool with his friend Joaquin - our neighbor's grandson.

Shooting some hoops with Dad!

Ready to eat!! The boy has an appetite these days. He ate 2 hot dogs and wanted "more, more!!" He is going to eat us out of house and home as a teenager.

Ben in his decorated car for the parade!

All the kids lined up for the start of the parade.

Ben had a blast motoring his little car down the street in the parade. He kept up with the big kids pretty well!

When the fireworks started Ben was not a big fan. He got in his car and took off down the street. He did not like how loud they were. So Matt pulled out his truck in our driveway so that we could watch them from our house (just down from the cul de sac). He still wasn't a big fan but he tolerated them.