Lots of food and squirt guns 
and FIREWORKS. 
Matt and Deanna have a little boy, Zane, who is one and he and Gaige and the girls have a heck of a time playing together. Here they are attacking Matt's brother, Chad. Kind of looks like a scene from Our Gang...
Here The kids had a blast with the sparklers. 
Last year Mallory was pretty brave and held the fireworks while Gwyneth stood back and watched. This year there was a bit of a role-reversal. 
Mallory was perfectly happy letting someone else make the sparklers dance this year. 
Shawna found Zane's car. She was happy as a clam in there for quite a while.
Matt, his dad and Chad went all out on the fireworks this year!! Gwynnie learned that sparklers are even more fun when the sun goes down!
It was a good day. Did I mention there were cupcakes!?
Oh... and beer
Following the holiday is Gwyneth's birthday. She turned 7 this year. For her gift from us all she asked for was a Hamster. So... we caved. His name is Hermes. Pronounced "hur-MEEZ".
and purple, gold and pink balloons. We went bowling and ate pizza. It's good to be 7! It's a funny time of year to have a birthday - lots of her friends were on vacation, but her 1st grade class BFFs - Jillian and Meghan - were there, our new friends Jenny and Jake brought their girls Katy and Paige and of course Mr. Gaige was on the scene, who is more like family than friend. With Meghan's brother Nick along for the ride we had a pretty hefty pack of little people running around. Gwyneth posed for the camera
ate pizza and birthday cake and played lots of video games. Then Gwyneth opened her birthday presents and was pretty excited to get home and play with everything! 
She got books and make-up, toys and jewelry. It was a good birthday. The big hits were the gift cards - that's what big, 7-year-old, independent girls L.O.V.E.Oh there was bowling, too. Neal discovered that if we bowled holding Shawna he did quite well.
He was already planning his PBA breakthrough until he realized this was going to get pretty difficult as she got bigger. His dream died before it was ever realized. Poor Neal. The kids really enjoyed bowling!!
Gaige bowled for the first time
As did Katy
and Paiger
We were home by 2 to play with the new stuff.
TOOTH WATCH 2009
We have teeth!! Shawna cut her first tooth on July 3rd. Then cut the second on July 16th! Here she is NOT showing them! (her hair is really filling in!)
Here you can kind of see 'em! (I got this on my phone today - not an easy task!)
Mallory turns 4 at the end of August and she is VERY excited. Everyday she asks me what 4-year-olds can do. It's mostly all the stuff she does now (Can 4s year olds brush their teeth? Can 4s year olds run fast?), but it definitely sounds cooler when you're FOUR. She hasn't decided on a party place just yet, but we're pretty sure it's going to be Mr. Gattis.
Shawna began crawling forward right after she hit the 8 month mark. Once she figured out crawling forward, she immediately began pulling up on the furniture and is now happiest when standing and crusing around tables and such. Every once in a while she will let go and stand for a minute before plopping on her fanny. My kids sure don't waste time becoming mobile, do they?
As for us adults - yes you do care about us! Neal is doing a SMALL triathalon next month. Its a 200yd swim / 9mi bike / 3mi run. I know what you're thinking... "that's a small triathalon!?" He's brave. My summer softball league has ended and fall registration is in the works as we speak. This Friday is our team party. I'll post pictures in my end of July blog where I talk about Shawna being 9 months old!
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