The "Spouse Mafia" and the 4th of July

 

The four women in the photo above (Jill, Bobbi, Tera, and Iris) have recently been labeled the Spouse Mafia. Allow me to explain:

Last week all of our husbands were away in the field for some training. With our husbands away, we did a lot of socializing and planning. In fact, we planned an entire 4th of July celebration.

When our husbands returned, we informed them that they would be attending a barbeque while wearing beautiful tie-dyed shirts.

Bobbi's husband, Eric, labeled us the Spouse Mafia because we were consorting without our husbands knowledge. In our defense, none of our husbands had cell phone reception while they were in the field, so we could not get their input on our party planning.

Before our husbands returned to us, we tie-dyed shirts for the kids and the hubbies. I don't have any pictures of Jill on tie-dye day because she was so kind to take all these pictures for us. Thanks Jill!

Here I am with TJ, Bailey, and Joey:

Here is Joey standing next to Bobbi. So many colors, so difficult to choose:

 

Here is Iris helping her two kids Sean and Caroline:

My pants became the casualty of the day. So sad! I really liked these jeans:

 

Voila! Our masterpieces unveiled on Independence Day:

Erick was the only husband/father to wear his tie-dye at the barbeque. He is such a good sport. But he couldn't disappoint  his kids after all their hard work.

During all of our planning, I mentioned to the other wives that I would love to have homemade Oreo cookies at the party. To my disbelief, NONE of them had ever seen, tasted, or heard of homemade Oreo cookies. So I made them myself for the first time.

I need to thank Carie for posting her amazing recipe so that I could steal it. They turned out beautifully! Everyone liked them. I'm glad they were such a hit:

Our big party plans were diminished a bit by lots and lots of rain. It didn't stop us, however. We still had a blast.

The rain kept the party a little more intimate than we had planned. We stayed inside for most of the afternoon. Our husbands still braved the weather to get the barbeque prepped:

Erick tried to stay dry under this stylish pink umbrella:

 

Instead of the water-balloon fights and sidewalk-chalk coloring contests that we had planned for the kids, we had Legos, board games, and coloring books in the house:

The adults even contributed to some fun. Here is Eric Towle pulling TJ around on a miniature wagon:

 

Finally, the rain slowed enough for some smoke bombs:

And we went out for some outdoor socializing:

 

Later that evening we drove over to see the fireworks.

It was a great day!