Some Firsts for Maddie

Maddie had some big firsts last weekend:

her first Fourth of July

Of course she and Kiley had matching patriotic outfits

her first two picnics

Enjoying some dinner on the St. Edwards lawn

her first fireworks show

St. Edwards puts out the second largest show in Nashville

and she started sitting up solo!

Chilling at the pool

We had a great holiday weekend, as you can probably tell. Sunday the third we went to mass in the morning, then to the store for some foods for the cookout, then back out to St. Edwards for the picnic/fireworks show. It was a great time again (our second year going). We ate lots of delicious food, and I got to try a new (to me) food truck, Fleur de Lis flavors. Oh man, they are good! I am all sorts of craving them now. In fact, I tried convincing the hubby that we just had to go there today before his mom's birthday event, but I don't think he agreed. Sigh. Anyway, Kiley played like crazy on the playground while we waited for the fireworks to start, then when they started she came and sat down. They were gorgeous! Maddie actually nursed through about 95% of the show, and didn't even seem to know anything was going on, then she got up for the grand finale. I covered her ears but let her watch, and she loved it! So precious.
Monday the 4th, we had a pretty low key day. We thought about going to a neighborhood parade and the hot chicken festival in East Nashville, but we were all feeling pretty tired out from the night before, so we stayed at home. Luckily, the rain that was predicted stayed away, so in the afternoon we went swimming with Casey's mom and sister. Maddie was in a particularly good mood, so we got to stay at the pool for over 2 hours! Amazing. She spent much of the time doing this:

While Kiley spent the WHOLE time doing this:

What a little mermaid she is!

Then following the swimming, we had another cookout with more delicious food. I love having a grill. Best investment of the summer. After our dinner, we ate my firecracker cake:

How festive! And yummy!