Fourth of July weekend was one of the busiest, chock full of fun weekends we have had in a while...today is Tuesday and I think the Goldsmiths are still exhausted from all the festivities. First of all, the 'events' started last Friday, when Amanda and the kids joined Alicia and her twins at Birch Point State Park beach. All these pics are on Sally's phone...so maybe she can send them to me and I can post them on here. Then, on Saturday, we had Lynne, George, and BaBa over in the morning-ish for a "German" themed BBQ lunch--we had hot German potato salad, knackwurst, bratwurst, and other types of sausages and hot dogs....

Then, at 4, we headed over to our friends Heather and Derek's house for their 4th of July bash. Also in attendance were Andy/Beth, Alicia/John, Lisa/Pete, and all the appertaining children! A fantastic time that went, for us, until about 930 that night.

I posted this pic because Maira was Andy's 'fireworks buddy' all night. Andy brought some Roman candles, firecrackers, etc, and Maira (normally so quiet and shy) kept following Andy around, asking him to light off more fireworks. Any time he lit stuff off, as seen below, she was right there to 'help' him...

Meanwhile, Callum had a blast with Pete, as Pete, being the wonderful school administrator as he is, educated Callum on how to properly make 'fart noises' with different parts of one's body (arm pit, forearm, et al). This picture truly captures the moment, and I love it. I also love how, over on the right, John Wilcox looks disgusted...haha...

Callum putting into practice what he has learned. He has now reached 'proficiency' in this 'indicator.' A super time!!

The kids swam, the dads played the most frustrating game of lawn darts of all time, we ate delicious pulled pork and salad and buffalo chicken dip (and more!) and we sat around a camp fire and all laughed and laughed. Oh,, and Callum got to try his hand at driving around Luke's battery powered mini-bike motorcycle thing....

As dusk began to fall, Andy started lighting off more fireworks and Amanda and I had this photo taken of us...it is very rare that we get our picture taken. Oh...sidenote...check out the shirt that was my father's day gift: The best shirt ever! Jane Marple, Sherlock Holmes, and Hercule Poirot...three of the greatest brains in mystery and detective fiction. Legends! All on one shirt!! #winning

And a rare picture of all the guys at the party: l to r we have Derek, Andy, Pete, Jared, and John (and a bunch of tweens behind us trying to photobomb)

more to come tomorrow about a great and very full holiday weekend...