Fourth of July Weekend.

I'm a little weird. I love Mondays. It's the busiest day of the week for me. I use it to clean, grocery shop, do laundry, and just get things done. But we just had the most perfect weekend and it's making my impending to-do list a little depressing. All because that list means it's back to real life.

School this week was pretty relaxed. For whatever reason, Madison does all of its Fourth of July celebrations BEFORE the Fourth. We had Thursday off from school, but almost everyone skipped Thursday as well. A friend and I still went, and we spent the evening sipping our Sonic slushies and playing games. I think that was the fastest time has ever flown at school.

Thursday:

We started the morning with brunch with church. It was at the park right across the street from us, so we just got to walk over. They had a little program, great food, and of course it was at the park with the splash pad, so the kids were set! Claire and Aoife just played on the play structures until they wore themselves out. We all took long afternoon naps before going swimming.

Poor Aoife was so tired, she was falling asleep in her floatie. It was kind of adorable. We took the girls back for one last nap before the big party. Our friends invited us over for the fourth. People here sure know how to throw a party. We had a blast. Claire still talks about it. It was probably my favorite Fourth of July in YEARS. I probably can't even do it justice talking about it, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Friday:

I was still in party mode, so I swept up the girls after their morning nap and took them out to Devil's Lake. I've heard a lot of good things about it and wanted to explore. We started off with a McDonald's lunch where Claire serenaded everyone.

 Then we took off to the North side of the park. We started off at the Nature Center. They had a few reptile exhibits that the girls liked, and the entire downstairs was hands-on exhibits for kids. We didn't stay long, but it was a fun little stop.

Turns out the North side was beyond packed and we got sent to the South Shore. Luckily, they had plenty of parking. We started off with a hike. Aoife was pretty restless and threw her binkie before we even started. It made for a long afternoon. Claire saw a trail that was full of big rocks and started climbing. She did really well and got pretty high up before other hikers told me that on the trail ahead, you had to climb up rocks that had a drop-off on either side. So we turned around. I'm not sure how much longer Claire would have lasted anyway. It was time to go cool off in the lake!

My girls are water babies. Especially Claire. They went crazy. Aoife would walk out with me as far as she could, or crawl around until the water came up to her face. For some reason, she prefers lakes to the pool.

On the way home, we stopped off at Dairy Queen for ice cream. Claire barely finished hers before falling asleep. We had so much fun, we decided to take Ross back the next day and invite some friends. Unfortunately, I wasn't as camera happy, and didn't really take any pictures of Saturday.

Since I went to school earlier in the week when no one else came, I decided to skip class on Saturday and take a long weekend. Despite the short notice, a few friends came out to the lake with us for a picnic lunch and swimming. Claire loved it and talked about her friends the whole way there and back. The weather was wonderful and we're all a little toasted. Ross doesn't get to go outside much, and he got the worst of it. We ended up getting an annual State Park pass, so we have lots of exploring to do. Hopefully we'll get him all sunned out before summer is over. After a couple long naps, we made a spur of the moment decision to take the girls to see Despicable Me 2. I was a little worried about taking the girls to the theater, especially with them being so tired, but they were actually really good! Claire was a little restless and would talk a little about what was happening, but what kid doesn't? Aoife was too tired to do anything, so she just sat with her binkie. The theater here doesn't charge for kids under 3, so we might be taking them more often!

We've officially been here for six months, and I think we're finally starting to like it here. Wisconsin is a million times better with friends. And sunshine doesn't hurt either. (Unless you forget to take the sunscreen to the lake.) We're looking forward to putting our annual pass to good use, exploring, and having many more perfect weekends.