4th of July Photo EXPLOSION!

It has taken me forever to get these pictures in the right order. So even if you don't do anything but skim through the stories, please spend a few moments enjoying the photos!

Ironically, none of these pictures were taken on the 4th because it fell on a Sunday. We hit the fireworks on Saturday and finished off our celebration on Monday.

We had to take our traditional 4th of July pictures in our matching outfits. What a great looking group of kids!

It wouldn't be a typical Saturday if we didn't run errands together. We found ourselves at Home Depot, buying materials for the bathroom construction project.

We felt pretty lucky to be there on the day they were making periscopes! We love free projects.

Very nice! Rebekah wielded a hammer very skillfully. She'll be a good builder someday.

Eventually, we headed to town for the fireworks show. It requires a lot of stuff to get a crew this size through the several hours that firework watching entails.

Snacks are one of the biggest requirements. Sarah made sure she got in on the cracker goodness!

We played some games, including WAR with the Five Crowns cards.

Sarah discovered that she really likes licorice!

Joseph kept us entertained with his usually goofy style.

The kids had a lot of space to run and they made sure they did. It was a good thing, because it was a little cool and they were able to get their blood circulating!

Finally, the show started. We didn't go to the fireworks last year, so Joseph had no memory his last firework display: he was only 7 1/2 months old. Rebekah was kind of in the same circumstance as she was 2 the last time we went.

I don't know how much Sarah enjoyed the show, but she didn't cry. That was a relief!

The show lasted over 30 minutes, so the kids started to get a little restless after some time.

Eventually, they fell asleep. It just doesn't seem right that they waited so many hours for the fireworks and then missed the finale!

It took us a while to get out of the traffic mess we got caught in, so we got home pretty late. Everyone was tired enough that we just let them sleep on the floor in the living room. (Blankets and sleeping bags were still out from sleeping in the tent in the backyard.) Some of them were confused the next morning!

We bought some fireworks of our own and saved them for the FHE activity. This year, we let Daniel light the explosives. It doesn't sound so responsible when I say it that way. He had quite the posture for lighting the fuses.

But it got the job done.

Nathan was captivated. Actually, he was showing off just a bit.

Ever the Big Sister, Leah held on to Sarah for us. There were some very bright fireworks. Leah squinted and Sarah was spellbound. I hope her eyes healed quickly.

Daddy gave Joseph the best view. Joseph seems to be enjoying himself!

We had sparklers for the kids. They were VERY difficult to light!

The camera had a hard time focusing in on Leah. Apparently, it just gave up and took the picture anyway.

And that was our 4th of July for 2010. Great memories!

4th of July 2008

How was everyone's celebration? I look forward to this patriotic summer holiday, and feel relieved when it's over again. Young kids in large crowds, late at night is not my favorite thing to inflict upon myself. But we survived it once again. (Well, Leah BARELY survived, according to her complaining in the van on the way home.)

Before I go any further, I must show off some very cute kids. How in the world is it legal to have so much cuteness in one family? Surely there is a crime being committed here. And what adorable matching shorts they have on. Someone must have slaved over those! (My sewing room was cooler the next morning. It was only 81 degrees when I went up to finish sewing. That's a whole 5 degrees cooler than the night before!)

Someone asked if they'd had their pictures taken because they were all matching. Here is the proof that they did.

We had about 4 hours to sit and wait for the firework show to begin. So we had some dinner and a lot of snacks. We took a lot of pictures - including the ones that the kids took with the camera upside down (and I turned back up). We went for a walk at one point. We made a few trips to the bathroom and the kids ran/jumped/goofed around a lot. There was one short game of UNO played.

Following are some pictures.

On the way to the fireworks









Waiting for the fireworks









Practicing what to do during the fireworks









The fireworks















No one cried this year. (THANK YOU!) Well, no one cried because of the fireworks. It wouldn't be honest to say there wasn't any crying at all! Joseph even went to sleep during the show. I guess bright flashes and sounds that vibrate your chest cavity are soothing to a baby born 5th in a family!

And here is a little collage of the night. It should be clickable. But when it comes to Blogger, I don't make assumptions.

Happy Birthday, America!

We skipped the parade yesterday, but faithfully attended the fireworks. We went to our favorite, easily accessible piece of grass. There are hundreds of other places that would be better, but this is easily accessible. We've now gone to the fireworks here 4 times, so we know what we're talking about! And the thing that makes this particular spot perfect is that we can view the fireworks right between the two Shilo Inn signs!

We got there early enough to be sure no one else would want our fabulous spot and got busy waiting. We had sunflower seeds and cookies for munching. Rebekah really liked the cookies. We brought a game to play and of course, Nathan was content to work in his workbook. I hope that I can find these pictures of him when he is 15 and failing his school classes!

I worked really hard to get a cute picture of the kids with Chad. This is what I got for my efforts.

And this is what I finally captured. At least 4 of them were looking.

The boys were in pretty interested in the firework show. Leah half pretended and half really was scared. Rebekah was bored and all over the place, stopping only occasionally to check out a really bright flash of light or the source of a loud boom. They were all conked out before we got home and again within 5 minutes of getting in bed.

So Happy Birthday, America. When these kids get older, they'll understand better WHY we go to the fireworks and put up our flag.