Independence Day

We had a chock-full Fourth of July here in Northbrook. We started out our day at the pancake breakfast. This (unflattering) photo was taken at about 7:30 AM. The pancakes were delicious.
After breakfast and some cleaning up at home I convinced Henry to take a short early nap with me. It took him about 45 minutes to settle down, and the nap lasted about 45 more minutes. Better than nothing though. When we awoke it was time for lunch and then off to the parade. Mary and Peter and Liz and Van joined us for that. We also saw Sharon and the girls, and Henry sat with them for a bit (closer seats means closer to the candy!).
Immediately after the parade we hoofed it over to the house of one of my students from this year. We had seen the family at a music in the park event earlier this summer and they invited us over for their ice cream social. Very nice. The walk back was a little tiring in the heat, however. Thanks to Pete for pulling the wagon.
We tried for another short nap but Henry was just too excited. Around 6:30-7:00 people started showing up for the party. Pete's parents came back, followed by Liz and Van then Jonathan and Amanda came with Kevin and Beth. It was a very nice group. Van doesn't seem to have absconded with any of my garden friends, but he did encourage Bart into some rowdy behavior.
Jonathan joined Henry at his picnic table for a bit. Bolo (the Boston Terrier) came along too, but I don't seem to have gotten any photos of him. Franklin decided this was the night to act a little territorial, so they didn't get too much playing time in together.
Here's a picture of the group. We had some delicious eats! Mary made yummy baked beans, a fruit salad and Pete's favorite chocolate cake. Jonathan and Amanda made mildly spicy cole-slaw with farm fresh cabbage (they get it delivered from one of those places...we need to look into that) and Beth and Kevin made a Spanish tortilla- what we would consider a fritatta, with eggs, potatoes and onions. I only had to grill up some meat and throw out some chips! Love it!
Around 8:45 we headed around the corner and set up our blankets on the baseball field. Henry took his "earring 'tection" but ended up not really needing it. We had a nice view of the fireworks, but weren't too close. I actually kind of missed the loudness. Henry wasn't completely mesmerized. He spent a good deal of his time running in circles around our blankets.
Oh...I did make some fancy ice cubes too. They were delicious in the lemonade.
Here's a picture of our porch, taken from the living room, after everyone had gone. Doesn't it look cozy and inviting? Don't you faraway friends just feel the need to come visit? We can sit out there and sip iced tea...
And here's Pete reading to Henry. I think he may have conked out after one story. I'm not sure why they chose this Olivia book- it's the other one that has the marching band and the fireworks in it- but it seemed to do the trick. Henry conked out quickly after a long long day.
And now I"m realizing it's past eleven and I should be conking out too....
I hope you all had just as lovely of a 4th, surrounded by equally cool people!