Happy 4th of July!

On the 4th of July, we gathered for "dinner and a show", in my mom's neighborhood park.

We hovered in the bits of shade from the little trees and the big red umbrella we brought.

For dinner we had BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, chips, watermelon, fruit salad, Candice's delicious potato salad and dessert--cupcakes, flag cake and red, white & blue Rice Crispy treats (with Fruit Loops) made by Amber.

Tyrel brought a friend, Deidra, to celebrate with us.

After dinner, I cut into the cake to reveal the flag inside.

Yay, it worked.. mostly. :)

When there was the slight hint that the sun might start setting, Dean ran and grabbed the fireworks from the car.

The kids enjoyed popping the SNAPS on the pavement.

Dean organized the firework stash and couldn't resist doing "just a few" before sunset.

Notice the big, black spot, to the left of the snake.

There's a story behind it...

I had a job. I was designated the "Sparkler Lady". Dean put me in charge of distributing the sparklers to the anxious kids all around me. I had a handful of sparklers in my left and the lighter in my right. As I was trying to keep up with the demand of lighting and distributing sparklers, something happened. I didn't actually see it happen and can't recall the details, but somehow a spark from a lit sparkler jumped over to my handful of sparklers and lit the whole bunch on fire!

At first, I thought "Oh good, there's only a few that got lit." But just as I though that, the flames got bigger and engulfed the rest. It got so hot and bright that I had to drop it, to avoid getting burned. It excited the kids (and possibly a few of the adults). As the heap of sparklers burned on the ground, some of the kids cried, while others got crazy and excited.

Our handful of sparklers, now equaled a big, black spot on the ground.

Sorry kids.

No more sparklers.

I think I worked myself out of a job.

I don't know that I'll ever be trusted again to be "Sparkler Lady".

Oh darn.

Dean put on an entertaining show (only trying to burn up the whole lot twice, by getting a lit firework too close to the stash) that lasted several minutes.

We had a great view of all the neighborhood fireworks too.

We ooo-ed and ahh-ed at our fountains, as well as all the BIG airborne displays around us.

We decided that we liked the "fish fountains" the best... bright colors and cool sparks and flames.

Happy 4th of July!

4th of July Weekend

We enjoyed a full weekend of fun with J.C. and Julia's family.

Friday night, we went to the movie in the park, at Settler's Park. It's a unique experience. It has a drive-in movie feel, without the car and tiny speakers. You bring your camping chairs, blankets and snacks and sit in the grass and watch a movie on a HUGE blow-up screen. The movies aren't new, but the experience and atmosphere make it fun.

The next morning, we went to our ward's pancake breakfast.

There were a lot of people in attendance, but our activities committee did a nice job feeding the masses. Joshua and Julia ready to eat.

Cameron the jack-o-lantern.

Abree

Taylee

Matthew's "Before" picture.

He had a late night, early morning and was hungry. Not a good combo. This picture was taken BEFORE the mini meltdown. Poor kiddo.

Treyson and Adam After breakfast, we enjoyed a flag-raising ceremony, including the Pledge of Allegiance, a patriotic musical number and a congregational hymn.Next, was the bike, scooter, stroller parade. The kids had decorated their scooters the night before and morning of, and were ready to show them off.

Slowly, but surely, everyone made the rounds at least once.

Abree taking her own sweet time.

Then we headed over to our neighborhood 4th of July celebration. We had missed the parade, but made it in time to play in the hose spray from the fire trucks. The mist was fine enough that you didn't HAVE TO get soaked, but many kids did.

This was such a fun time. The firemen were so kind and generous. They let anyone who wanted to, try their hand at spraying the big hoses. Cameron thought that looked fun and took a turn.

After lunch, when J.C. and Jason returned from work, we decided to go swimming at our neighborhood pool.

We played and played, until we were water-logged and hungry again.

We had a nice BBQ, including a potato salad, made from the bounties of our small garden.

In the evening, we went down to Storey Park, for live music, bouncy houses, and fireworks.

The Spiderman bouncy house was first on the boys agenda.

We also played in the park.

Abree enjoyed the swings.

Another thing the kids tried out was this.

What do you call it?

"Bop 'em and sock 'em"?

The kids said the clubs were kind of heavy and it didn't take much to knock them off their plattforms.

We did some sparklers and enjoyed the big firework display. Then went home for a few more fireworks of our own.

A very long, but fun filled day.