Happy Birthday America!

Happy 4th of July America!  The Mullinnix family had an amazing 4th this year and our 1st 4th as a family of 4.  We started out our morning with a nice breakfast at La Madeleine with some friends then we all headed over to stake out our spot to watch The Woodlands 4th of July parade.

Our sweet American Beauty and her handsome daddy.

Our adorable all American boy.

Waiting for the parade, we are all decked out in Red, White and blue.
(I did have a bow for Hannah Joy but I made it before I bought her dress and
it didn't go well so she had to go bowless)

Cool old time fire truck

Hannah Joy loved the parade and was way into it

 Eli seemed to really enjoy it too.

The Color Gard

Below are just some of the "floats" in the parade that we liked.

 My little cutie enjoying the parade.

Even the life flight helicopter was part of the parade,

Our Church has a VBS float in the parade every year.  My be one year we will ride on the float.

Like last year we did not make it to the end of the parade (we were melting!).  So when we had enough we head on to Waller for lunch with Nanny, Pop Pop and Grandmama.  We had some yummy BBQ pork sandwiches that my dad smoked, watermelon, chips and watermelon lemonade (made by me).  After lunch we just played around the house where Hannah Joy decided to explore Nanny's house.

 Eli got in some good wrestling time with Pop pop.  

Once Hannah Joy woke up from her nap we headed out to Waller's Freedom Fest.  This festival was awesome!  Everything was free except the vendors and the helicopter rides.  Even the stuff that cost was very reasonably priced.  There was so much for Eli to do.  We really lucked out because when we got there we had an amazing cloud coverage with a great breeze so the whole time we were there it was actually very enjoyable temperature wise.

We were greeted by this wonderful very large flag,

The kiddos!

Nanny decided to join us at Freedom Fest and with was so nice to have an extra set of arms since Hannah Joy being the Diva she is didn't last too long in the stroller.

There were several water slides and of course E had to go down all of them.

Slide #1

Slide # 2

Hi Mommy!

Slide #3

and finally slide #4.  This must have been Eli's favorite because he did it several times before heading on to the next activity.

Hannah Joy had a blast watching all the activity. (she needs a bow!)

After the water slides Eli was excited to hit up the bumper boats.  Eli had a blast being able to drive a boat all by himself.  Most of his time driving, though, he spent going around in circles.  Makes me a little scared for when he turn 16 (car donuts anyone?)

He was very serious about his driving

Of course we had to take a ride on the train.  My big boy didn't want anyone to ride with him.  But of course, why would he he is 3!

During the train ride the driver took them through the mister cool zone that was set up.

Next on the agenda (Eli's agenda we didn't have one) was the rock wall.

 Eli tried and tried to get up the wall, he'll be doing it before we know it!

While Eli waited in line for another activity Hannah Joy and I went and sat down in front of the music stage so she could have some dinner.  The group on stage was a Christian Rap group.  Hannah Joy loved it.  She totally got into the music and at one point was waving with the rappers.  She was also totally distracted with the group which made feeding her very easy.  Maybe I need to get that group to come preform every time I feed her a meal!

Listening to some music while enjoying yogurt with pears and green beans.

One of the fire trucks at the fest shot water into an open field for the kids to play in, by the time Eli got over there, though, they had stopped so all that was left was a big mud puddle.  Luckily since neither me, nanny or daddy would go play in the mud with him he changed his mind about hitting up the huge mud puddle.

Next stop was the petting zoo.  Nanny was the lucky one who got to visit the animals with Eli.  This mobile petting zoo had a great selection of animal, goats, sheep, chickens rabbits, deer, llamas and a few other I don't remember.  I was very impressed with the petting zoo and all the animals were very calm and not very aggressive like I have seen at other petting zoos.

Eli loved the fact he got to pet a deer.

This deer was so sweet

2 of my 3 cuties! (can't believe I didn't put a bow on her head!)

Hannah Joy was getting very tired (actually her parents were getting very tired, I was just using her as an excuse) so we told Eli to pick one last activity and then it was time to go.  Which was very good timing because the sun was coming back out which was causing the temps to go way up and the fest was getting very crowded.  Eli chose one more go on the bumper boats.  The little smart sneaky kid figured out how to restart the timer on the boat and got extra time on the boat and almost did it another time but daddy caught him!

Eli did almost all the activities at the Freedom Fest except carriage ride (I didn't want to walk all the way over there), the helicopter rides (which cost but was only $35 for 3 people to ride but were all booked up for the evening) and the face painting (I totally forgot to tell Eli about it).  Eli had the best time and I don't think stopped smiling the whole time we were there.  Thank you Waller Alliance of Ministries for a fabulous time and putting on a fun and free festival.

After we left the Freedom Fest, Thomas, Hannah Joy and I, dropped Eli and Nanny off at Nanny's house.  Eli was going to spend the night.  I told Eli to see if he could get Pop Pop to take him back for the fireworks.  I am curious to see if they went or not.  So Hannah Joy, Thomas and I headed back over to The Woodlands, Hannah Joy was so tired she fell asleep on the way home.  Thomas and I watched the fireworks on our TV (we are a wild pair).  Then being so exhausted from such a fun day we fell asleep amist all the loud fireworks being shot off right outside our house.

I can't think of a better time celebrating our nations birthday then with family.  Every year seems to get better and better!  Maybe next year we will make it to a fireworks show!