Pomerleau Family Blog: Fun Pre-4th of July BBQ at our house and Fourth of July!

This year since Olivia had quite a few friends from her class she wanted to invite to her birthday party, we decided to keep the invites down on her birthday party and family wise just invite both sets of her grandparents. Sean has quite a bit of family in Portland that still had not seen our house and wanted to celebrate Olivia's birthday party so we decided to throw a Pre-Fourth of July BBQ/Birthday Party for Olivia (for those who did not celebrate the week before). There were some overlap of people of course who came to both as well. I let Sean run the party since I had just ran the birthday party the weekend before (and was tired!). We ended up having the party on Friday July 3rd since the 4th was on a Saturday most of our friends and family had the 3rd off. It was nice for us because it was the start of our 10 day vacation (we took the whole following week off to go to Sun River) and we had the entire day to get stuff ready for the party.

We got a huge 17 lb pork butt shoulder at Cash and Carry (a store that carries restaurant quality and restaurant meat) and Sean cooked it in the Traeger most of the night before leading up to the BBQ and during the day. We had pulled pork sandwiches and I made cupcakes for dessert to celebrate Olivia's birthday. We also had everyone bring a side or dish so it was potluck style. We ended up having at one point 35 people in our house and it was amazing because everyone fit just fine. We had quite a few kids as well. The kids loved playing in our backyard and we had both pools out, our play house and slide out. The weather was great, it was warm but not too hot. All in all, it was a very fun party and I love that our house is now so great to have people over and to entertain! We will have to do it again soon!

Playing with the babies in the playroom

Olivia and Mikayla

Olivia watching her friends Tyne and Luna in the pool

Backyard fun

Dancing to her favorite "Let it Go"

Crowd in the playhouse

Squirting the skirt gun

Brandon and his bud Logan

Jumping so fast!

Olivia and Addie

Addie and Tyne

Getting some help opening presents

Liv got a Ariel doll from Grammy!

Birthday girl with her birthday crown

The next day, we let Olivia open up her birthday presents from us early on the 4th of July since we were leaving on the 5th to go to Sun River for a week and we did not want to lug all of her presents with us on the trip. By then, it was her third stint of getting to open up presents (she had her birthday party and then got some more presents the night before at the BBQ) so she was getting to be a pro at opening up presents. She got an Elsa and Anna dressed American Girl Itty Bitty Twin set (that I found used on a Facebook neighborhood swap group I am on) and a American Girl Itty Bitty Twin double stroller and she got a Anna dress too (she already had the Elsa dress). She also got a life size newborn baby doll she promptly named Charlotte, a Elsa back pack, and a fun Calico Critter set that I found on Craiglist last fall that I was going to give them for Christmas and then decided to wait until she was older before doing so. She seems to really enjoy all of her presents and I enjoyed giving them to her (its so fun getting toys for a girl!).

Opening up her Calico critter set

Big brother was excited too

Baby Charlotte

Playing with big brother's light sabers

Hi Mom, I am Anna!

Olivia and baby Charlotte

Why hello!

Taking the twins on a walk

Going on a walk

Walking Sweet Pea in the neighborhood

Later that day, we said goodbye to Grammy and Papa (Sean's parents stayed the night after our BBQ) and then headed over our good friend the Mowery's house to celebrate the Fourth of July. The Mowerys live on a culd-a-sac that is ideal for lighting fireworks and they have fun neighbors that have a little girl named Piper who is almost 4 and who Brandon and Logan like to play with. We had a fun BBQ out in the front of the house (we had a lot of leftovers from our BBQ) and then the neighborhood lit the fireworks. Olivia and Addie were at first scared of fireworks but got used to them and enjoyed them. The kids had a lot of fun and stayed up quite late (we did not get home until 11:00 PM!). It was a very fun start to our week long vacation!