Red, White and Blue - Cajun Style!

July 2014

The morning after we met Miss Lucy, we hopped in the car and headed south to Louisiana for a long 4th of July weekend. There are never-ending amounts of fun to be had on the farm in the summer! Of course, there's lots of fun to be had out at the barn with Poppy in the morning and afternoon.  The ducks, cows, horses and sheep all need to be fed.  Livi became an expert at chasing the ducks back into their pen - it was the cutest thing ever! Of course, with the hot summer sun shining overhead, proper headwear is essential (the right pair of boots are also important):



The horses need to get their exercise:

And it is even more fun if you get in a little ride while you are at it. Jack has gotten to be really comfortable on Angel and loves to show off his favorite "no hands" trick. Livi is not quite as comfortable, but as long as she can hold on tight to her big brother, she does OK:

Jack and Livi both did an excellent job brushing Angel after their ride:

And there is always something that can only be taken care of with a ride in the tractor.  You can't see them too well, but Poppy and Jack and Livi all got in on this ride:

Gigi set up the kiddie pool in front of the house and we had some great water balloon fights!

We even brought the fishing poles that Grandpa gave us for the lake house and caught a few fish in Poppy's pond!

My kids had never played with fireworks before - sadly they are illegal to set off in Frisco. We took advantage of being on the farm and bought a few fireworks from the stand down the road. Nothing too big, but we had smoke bombs, snakes, poppers, sparklers and a few others - lots of mom's favorites from when I was a kid!

They were excited to begin - and adorable in their red, white and blue!

Poppers are so much fun!

Dad helped light the smoke bombs!

Finally, sparklers!

Even Poppy and Daddy got in on the sparkler fun!

Sadly, Gigi was feeling a little under the weather, so she stayed home to rest while the rest of is headed to Eunice to see some fireworks. I must admit that my expectations of a small town Louisiana fireworks show were pretty low, but I was impressed. The show lasted probably 20-30 minutes.  Every time I thought it was over, the fireworks would start again. We had a great view from the back of Poppy's car:

Livi and Jack had the best seats in the house!

 

The summer of 2014 was the summer of babies for the extended Mhire family. Lucy wasn't the only baby we needed to visit - while we were in Lafayette, we had three littles to meet visit. We started our day with a visit to Tommy's cousin Kristi's house to visit Marley for the first time, and play with her big sister Murphy.  We met Marley for the first time last Christmas, but she was just a few weeks old then and slept most of the time, so it was nice to get to spend some more time with her!

Next, we headed to cousin Lindsey's house to meet little Olive - just a few weeks old and so tiny.

Finally, we stopped by Jake's house to meet little John. Jack and Jacob had a great time running around and knocking over stacks of Angry Bird stuffed animals!



What a great celebration of our nation's birth - Cajun Style!