As American as Pineapple Pie

I am still in a happy haze from our all American 4th of July weekend.

Of course the best part was getting my girl back from camp!

I could NOT stop crying after I saw her sitting in the crowd! I was so anxious to get my hands on her and hear all about the week.  Then, the heart melter . . .

Awwwwww......they were both SOOOO happy to see each other and stayed attached the rest of the day.

Please go back and look through the same series of pictures and notice the little boy in the white polo shirt. That would be Tru. He was totally unaware of the happy reunion and hardly acted like he noticed his sister was back. Sibling love. You win some, you lose some.

And these darling girls from Texas loved on my baby well all week. They also made me cry with the sweet things they had to say about Caroline. We totally hearted Brookhill this week!!

Other than having Caroline home, however, the highlight of the weekend was yesterday. I love Fourth of July here. Our day looked like a slice of the kind of America Norman Rockwell painted. We took the morning easy and then met many, many friends up at one of the country club's pools to swim. The dads sat around talking and laughing while the moms sat on the edge of the pool (safely) catching rays and enjoying each other. Our kids ran around and swam and jumped off the diving board; there were water balloon tosses and watermelon relays. Just a fun, fun ideal kind of day.

Around 4:30 we all headed home and grilled with our families. Josh was excited to host his first 4th on the the new grill with my parents. And we stuffed ourselves on salmon, beef and chicken kabobs, rice, grilled corn on the cob (oh.my.gosh.), a patriotic fruit salad, cookie cake decorated like a flag, ice cream, and, of course, apple pie. Except that I accidently bought a pineapple pie from the bakery. Oops. You can always count on me giving everyone a reason to giggle when I host the meal!

And then . . . the part of the night that felt so "Americana" as I told my friend, Cathy . . . around 7:30/8 we all met back together at the country club for fireworks. Picture tall pine trees, a perfectly maintained golf course, and a club house reminiscent of the one in Dirty Dancing. Now add to that lots of families standing around or sitting on blankets all over the golf course while the kids ride down a grassy hill on cardboard boxes until it gets dark enough for the fireworks to start. I was lying on our blanket last night with my kids cuddled up beside me and Josh behind me and our friends all around us watching the fireworks go off to a great sound track of American songs and I felt so content. So happy. So patriotic.

Hope y'all had a great weekend too! We are blessed to live in our country--despite gas prices and political fighting and a downturned economy, we have it so good here. God HAS blessed America! May He continue to do so.