Happy Fourth of July!

{Warning: This post contains ALOT of pictures!} :)

This morning, we dragged ourselves out of bed and decided to lay low today, recovering from our many July 4th festivities and two late, late nights out!

We started celebrating July 3 with a trip downtown for Fireworks on the James! We grabbed an AMAZING spot by the Virginia War Memorial and could not have had a more perfect view of the city or the fireworks! 

{City skyline at dusk}

{Ready to watch fireworks!}

{A gorgeous show!}

Despite our late night downtown, we woke up early on July 4 and headed straight to the botanical gardens to see their Butterfly Live exhibit for free! I've never seen so many butterflies up close before! Love!

{Believe me when I say that I had to restrain myself from posting ALL of my butterfly pictures!}

{Can you spot the butterfly?}

The day promised to be a scorcher, so we wandered the gardens only long enough to take another picture or two, and then we dashed off to the pool to cool off for several hours! 

Naps followed swimming, and then we were off again to our friends' house! Upon arriving, we immediately bribed all the children to give us at least one good picture together before getting too hot and dirty! 

Their prize for sitting still for pictures? Water guns!

After the children were thoroughly soaked, we retreated inside for dinner, a yummy shrimp boil! 

And then a light show! That is, until the fire department arrived and informed us that projectile fireworks were not permitted in Virginia. Oops.

{Harry Potter, anyone?}

{In case you're wondering, yes, that is my son in a pink tutu and butterfly wings!}

We finally headed home to light our remaining (and perfectly legal) fireworks in the driveway.

We also lit sparklers! 

Such lovely Independence Day celebrations!  

Last but certainly not least, thank you to all the men and women who serve our country tirelessly defending the freedoms that we celebrated this week!

Happy Fourth of July!