4th of July Weekend Celebrations!

Whomever dreads going to Santa Clarita Valley's 4th of July parades...oh wait, that would be us...were extremely impressed by the entries in our "not so little anymore" town's 4th of July parade this year.
Mackenzie, Mia and Isabelle waiting for the parade to start

Just as we did last year, we headed over to the REP to get our front row seats on the sidewalk right in front of the theatre. However this year we had it put into the Jaycees email blast for everyone to meet us there! 8am rolled around pretty quick that morning but luckily Michael and a few of the Jaycee crew were there setting up and reserving some concrete for all of us :)
Mia and Isabelle telling secrets The parade must have lasted almost 2 hours and with Downtown Newhall (where our theatre is at) being the staring point, all of the entries were fresh, peppy and excited to get moving. Our favorite entry was from the Northpark Church....they must have had almost 150 people walking in it with dancing, singing, pushing and pulling "floats" and the piece de le resistance were 3 huge, red, white and blue, Macy's Day Parade style star balloons being walked down the road. It was outstanding! Like I said, the parade was really good this year and with my homemade blueberry and cranberry muffins (red, white and blue-hehe) and mimosas flowing, it was a great start to was going to be (and was) a fun filled 4th of July holiday weekend!
Mike, Mia, Travis, Mackenzie, Papa and Isabelle
Thursday night was our friends Kristen and Phillip's rehearsal dinner. Thier wedding was being held the following day, Saturday the 5th, at our theatre so with getting up early for the parade 4th of July morning...needless to say, our early afternoon pre-BBQ schedule called for a nap! The three of us passed out, got up 2 hours later primed and ready to start our 3rd Annual "4th of July BBQ". This year however, consisted of LOTS of swim diapers, pack and plays, taking turns using Isabelle's highchair :) and of course lots of games of Hillbilly Horseshoes (thanks Fefe)!
Papa throwing Isabelle and giving Mom a heart attack
Johnny, Debbie and Jenny hanging at the pool
After BBQ'ing, eating, playing Hillbilly Horseshoes and swimming (which happened to be Baby Kyle Chapman's first time in the pool-just like Isabelle, Mia and Mackenzie last year), when 8:45pm rolled around we all packed up our blankets, chairs, coolers and the dog and headed over to the park to watch the mall fireworks. What a gorgeous show! Isabelle passed out in my lap about 5 minutes before it ended...at least she enjoyed watching them for a little while. All of the rugrats went down when we got back home which left the rest of the evening for adult time....much needed adult time :)
New Daddy, Dan Chapman with baby KyleThe gang getting ready for the firework show
Saturday morning was a busy errand running one. With Grandmama and Poppy on their flight home due to arrive that evening (just making it to the beginning of the wedding ceremony) and Michael at the theatre adding the finishing touches to the wedding decor, I was dragging Isabelle all over the place with me. We got most everything completed and with her being a flower girl in the wedding, we had to do a little reworking of her nap schedule so she would be bathed, dressed, ready and at the theatre for pictures by 5:30pm (the wedding started shortly after 7pm).
Our first glimpse of the bride, Kristen, and her first glimpse of her flower girl

The bride, groom and bridal party were picture perfect and the theatre didn't even look like the theatre. They had worked all week on transforming our 81 seat house into this beautiful venue draped with burgundy, coral, black and white fabric with sprays of flowers everywhere. You may ask why did they choose the theatre? Well our theatre just happend to be where Kristen and Phillip's lives together first began. They had met on our stage during the production of Proof in 2006 and the rest, as they say, is history...well for them, it's history in the making :)
Isabelle tootling around before the guests arrivedIsabelle was asked to be the flower girl with no huge intentions being 15 months and all. We didn't know if she would make it down the stairs or not, if she would be able to hold the basket while going down the stairs or not, etc. Kristen and Phillip said to let her do what she wants to do. Needless to say, when Michael had her at the theatre with him, she would be seen practicing walking down the stairs all by herself. So when the time came for her to march down those stairs on Saturday night, we thought to ourselves; either she is going to be shell shocked with all the people there or she is going to ham it up and strut her stuff. For those of you who know Isabelle's Father, guess how she did? You guessed it, after Phillip's nephew, Jon Paul, and his mom got to the bottom of the stairs, out came Isabelle strutting her stuff right down that aisle/stairway all by herself (but I was following close behind). She strutted her stuff so well that I actually had to coax her down the last 4 out of 8 steps because she would stop at the corner of the seat that she had grabbed to help her step down with, look up at the person sitting there, smile and sometimes even start jabbering at them. She was hilarious and everyone was laughing and clapping for her.
Isabelle drinking her juice, snacking on Goldfish and watching a Baby Einstein DVD on Michael's computer
After the bride came down the aisle (who looked absolutely gorgeous!) and right before the ceremony started, little miss wiggle worm decided she wanted nothing to do with sitting on my lap so before a peep was made, we made our quick exit through the "ring bearer and flower girl preplanned escape route", plopped her back in front of the computer in Michael's office to watch the rest of the Baby Einstein DVD and I ran back and forth to catch as much of the ceremony that I could. Michael was the MC that night and was running the lights and sound so unfortunately, it was all me with our little one which thankfully wasn't bad at all. The ceremony was beautiful and all I have to say is that I caught the best part...the kiss! It was so surreal watching it though; two of our actors, on stage tying the knot. The night moved forward into the toasts, first dances, cake cutting, garter & bouquet toss, etc, ending around 2:30am. Isabelle was a trooper and stayed awake until a little after 10pm, falling asleep in my arms in the office then put into her pack and play for the evening. Michael and I got to have a few dances together and when Isabelle woke up a few hours later she was brought out to the dance floor by her Papa to share a dance with us before I took her home.
Isabelle Anessa, the flower girl
All I have to say is what a fabulous, wonderful and memorable weekend we had! Thank you again Kristen and Phillip, for allowing us to be a part of your big day and here is to a lifetime of happiness!