Fun Times with Sharon's Fam

My sister Sharon and her six kids drove up from Mississippi on July 3 to spend some time with us. We've had a blast together so far (hence the reason why I've been MIA for over a week). They left last Saturday morning to spend a few days with Sharon's husband's side of the family, but they'll be back Tuesday evening and will spend another day and a half with us before going home on Thursday. Here are some of the things we've been up to:

On the evening that Sharon's family arrived, my friend Kellie and her family came over to set off fireworks. It was so sweet of them to do this, and we all enjoyed it, especially the kids. I was already back in bed for the evening, so I decided to just stay put since I didn't feel like getting dressed again and up in my wheelchair. We watched Monsters Inc. while we waited for it to get dark, and then our friends arrived. My nieces Sarah and Rachel are a little scared of the big booms that accompany fireworks, so they wanted to watch inside with me. We lifted up my shade, turned out the lights and the little girls sat on stools in front of the window. It was so sweet listening to them excitedly exclaim, "Awesome!" after each one. The highlight for me was when Sarah said, "It's like being at Disneyland, except that I'm here at Grammy's and I get to watch with Heather!" (It melted my heart!)

On the Fourth of July, we all wore red, except Elizabeth who wore blue. 

For our dinner we had boneless spare ribs, baked beans, corn on the cob, raw vegetables/dip, watermelon and homemade ice cream for dessert. (It was hard to get a good picture with all of the backlight, but this was as good as it got, even with the blinds inside the back door closed.)

(Above red polo twins!)

On Friday we caught up with our friend Michelle and her family. That was so much fun (read more about that back here).  Most of us were wearing bright colors that day, so we figured it was a good excuse for a photo op!

My niece Elizabeth joined band last year when she went into middle school and she brought her flute along so that she wouldn't get rusty while on vacation for two weeks. She practiced in my room one morning so that I could actually see her in action (instead of just hearing her). I'm not a musician, but I thought she sounded great!

More about the visit to come!