Fourth of July Weekend

We had a FUN weekend this weekend. We had some special guests: Grandma and Grandpa!

And Aunt Barbara! (How cute is that picture!?)

And you see that adorable little ball of fur between Amara and Barb? That's Miss Emmy. I'm probably going to butcher the spelling of her full name, but it will be Miss M.Erica Vespoochi. Miss for Missouri where we got her. M for May, when she was born. Erica to finish out "America" -- because Barb got her on July 4. And Vespoochi because she's a little explorer already (Amerigo Vespuchi). Cute, eh? We'll just call her Emmy.

The kids were head over heels for this little pup. She's amazingly well trained -- at only 8 weeks old, she's basically house broken.

Emmy was in love with the kids, too. The first day she was a little timid, which is certainly understandable. The second day, she really came to life. This little lightweight would jump up on the kids and just attack their faces -- licking off all the yummy leftovers.

Dominic's final verdict: Thumbs Up! She's a keeper, Aunt Barb.

Amara's final verdict: Well... she only has giggles to offer. Amara just may be heartbroken when Emmy has to go home with Barb.

I see a future veternarian among us. Amara is SO good with puppies/animals. I thought she'd quickly get bored with Emmy, but not so. We'll see what happens for the rest of the week. There are definitely no puppies or pets in our near future -- with our schedules, it just wouldn't be fair to the animal. But who knows: maybe one day we'll allow it. Especially if Amara continues to grow into such a fierce animal lover. Even at age 4.5, I suspect she'd be more diligent at taking care of a puppy than we would. Seriously. She's good.

My favorite part about puppies though at this point... Look at this face. Is there any more pure joy, excitement, and love. So my favorite part about puppies is Amara's face.

Aside from the puppy, we did do a few other things. Probably the other highlight was getting Amara's "new" new bike up and running. Since her first new bike was too big, we returned and bought one just a size down. Much better! Much happier! Much more successful.

Dominic rode for a while, but was operating on way too little sleep. Instead, he opted to get a "razorback" (what the kids call piggy backs) from Grandpa. Notice how he rides -- don't know why -- but he won't wrap his legs around the normal way. He does when I give him a razorback, so it must be that his legs just aren't quite long enough. Cute anyway!

We also had a belated 3rd birthday celebration for Dominic. I tried my hand at taking his 3rd birthday photos myself instead of at a studio. This was my favorite shot. And while I was happy with it, I just had it printed at WM, and they totally "enhanced" it to death and it came out awful. Of course, I didn't catch it while there, so hopefully they'll refund my money and reprint it!

One of Dominic's new birthday gifts was a Pitch-Back screen that Dad and Grandpa put together. Think he likes it?

Of course, then we had to test it out. Swing for the fences!

While Dominic practiced baseball, Amara climbed mountains. OK, so maybe it was just the huge rock in our front yard. She had to display her muscles! And look at that hair! :)

So you ask where the fireworks celebration was...

Well, that was kind of a bust. We skipped the parade in favor of going to buy the puppy. Then we were going to watch the fireworks from the dock, but the "show" that happened last year didn't really happen this year. Our neighbors did light some amazing fireworks on the dock behind us. However, they were so close that frankly we were a bit scared. And because of the huge tree we were standing under, we couldn't see them anyway. Dominic enjoyed it. Amara HATED it. She cried the entire time because of the noise. My Mom covered her ears. So we'll take a different approach next year.

Despite the fireworks (or lack thereof), we had a wonderful weekend!