july 4th, etc.

sorry for not posting sooner, this week has been busy with work and preparing for our first visitors to arrive tonight (the keatings!). we did have a great 4th of july though and i wanted to share some photos from the day. the weather cooperated, our kapici gave us a great spot for the picnic table, and ben & adam grilled up quite the feast. i was especially appreciative that some of our turkish friends joined us to help celebrate, and brought some authentic turkish dishes to make for a true american celebration (after all, what's america without diversity?). as the ambassador told me when i was leaving his july 4th soiree, 'when you celebrate on saturday, remember that this is your birthday, too.' thank you, mr. ambassador. and happy birthday to me!

evie had a great time tormenting lincoln.

she even recruited some of our neighbors who were happy to help her out
ben & adam took their grilling responsibilities very seriously (and the beer part, too)


there was so much food. but mostly we had fun just hanging out. here's evie, nilay, ozge & julianne.
later our friend can stopped by to clean up (aka eat everything that was left behind). i think he ate 4 burgers. he's dependable like that. i call him my human garbage disposal... he likes it.
adam took some time to get to know elmo. an important task for all expectant dads, i think.
this is the peach pie i made. it was my first attempt at making one from scratch, and turned out to be quite delicious if i do say so myself!
i don't know how this got in here, but it did make me laugh. elmo saluting the bags, perhaps?
poor lincoln was pooped after spending the day trying to avoid the overly affectionate little girls.
this was not taken on july 4th, but it's what julianne & i found upon returning from the movies last night. and yes, they did give us an encore performance.