With 12 of us celebrating birthdays throughout the year, we pretty much have one for every month to celebrate. Our 8-year-old daughter is the fortunate one to enjoy her birthday on the 1st of July. She is the lucky recipient to enjoy “Daddys’ awesome fireworks show.” My husband enjoys the 4th of July holiday more than any other holiday during the year. The excitement and anticipation of fireworks and seeing the joys of the childrens’ faces is what gets him excited. He is a good Daddy. Here are the highlights of a plain and simple birthday party in summer.
we started off by riding go karts around the yard. The 8-year-old was taught to drive the go-kart herself this year. 
here she is chasing her 17-year-old brother on his Odyssey.
we did a water balloon toss game, and our daughter diligently filled up 200 water balloons for this occasion. By the way my daughter is wearing our bathing suit…they are made by wholesomewear.com a wonderful durable bathing suit. I love them.
here are the 1,2, and 3 year olds getting into the water balloons
On the menu: macaroni and cheese, baked beans, and………
hot dogs cooked over a Dakota hole fire—very cool google this idea
fresh fruit
blt chicken salad
veggie pizza
a homemade water slide fondant cake made by big sister
We then made a treasure hunt, that sent the girls around the yard looking for clues. One example of a clue was…..in the tree that Tarzan swings from you will find me……..(we have a willow tree). We did 6 clues and that seemed to be sufficient for them.
In the end they found a box filled with glow sticks,(for our fireworks show)bubbles, candy, slap bracelets, and silly string……which they decided to get the older siblings while they were driving the go-kart.
My 15 and 20-year-old, yeah better not get mom…………..
Then on to more games…….. Our neighbor gave us a refrigerator box this week out of the blue and it worked out to be a blessing. We found some paints in the garage and came up with a homemade bean bag toss game.
We made the “bean bags” out of felt squares and rice.
Next, we made a homemade pinata. The children really enjoyed making that this week.
Dad brought out the potato gun to shoot. Another great fun family project.
Here is the 8 year olds first time shooting.
Then to top it all off fireworks!! This was our first year in…….forever…….that we all got to sit outside and enjoy. We usually have a little one that does not enjoy the noise. But this year everyone stayed for the whole thing, it was beautiful. 
Thank you for a fun weekend Daddy! and Happy Birthday to my daughter Jadyn, truly a girl after God’s own heart. We love you.
