This Independence day we decided to keep it simple and keep it to ourselves. We did fireworks off and on throughout the day, made cookies, swam in the pool, jumped on the trampoline, went to the farmer's markets, went on a bike ride and walked around the neighborhood. It was very relaxed and I loved it.
Here are the kids yelling "fireworks!"
Pop its!
The neighbor kids, Anothony and Zoey, were out front playing with us for a while.
Parachutes!
Dragon war!
In years past Carson had a terrible time with the sounds of Fourth of July. This year was no exception. It was a little easier because I was able to put some earplugs in and as long as I was nearby he was okay. We spent a lot of the later time with my hands covering his ears too but he made it until 10:30! I think he liked watching them. He just HATES the big booms.
This is early on in the day and he wanted to be with Daddy, Kayda and Dillon but hadn't adapted to the noise yet.
Cookies! We were having fun making "Yum" faces!
Carson was testing out the whole lip smacking goodness idea.
This was Kayda's "Mmmm! So good!" face.
There was a balloon dude down at the farmer's market. Dillon got a dinosaur, Carson a horse and Kayda a penguin.
As part of our entertainment for the day we decorated paper bags to light up in the evening. We had the candles lit from about 8:30 on, it was cool to have glowing paper bags lining our driveway. Definitely a returning activity for next year, except I'll go buy some white ones so it works a little better.
We weren't able to convince Carson to go near many fireworks. We were able to get him to throw a ground bloomer by....
Doing the ground bloomer crazy spin dance!
We did a few little fountains early on and he sat there saying "Fire, fire, fire" the whole time.
Kayda and Dillon did a LOT of the lighting this year. We had no extra kids so we were able to give them more freedom. They were very careful to get away as soon as it was lit. I love that they can respect potentially dangerous situations so well and behave accordingly!
Another of the fireworks Carson was willing to do. He only did one though, he wasn't willing to do another even with Mommy.
When you have tanks and such you simply MUST face them towards eachother. The kids love it. Next year we'll start showing them how to make the complicated suped up tanks of Daddy's memories.
Roman candle away!
Smoke dances!
This is how Carson and I spent most of our evening. Except my hands were normally over his ears in addition to the bright purple ear plugs! He would keep grabbing them and sticking them on until I finally stopped moving.
Daddy's attempts at convincing Carson that sparklers are okay.
He thought they were okay. You could see him getting more nervous as the sparks moved closer and closer to his hand. Smart kid!
I love the flashers. Carson wouldn't let me go out there but dancing in those is one of my favorite fireworks activities!
Ever since Tangled came out we've HAD to get these lanterns. They were EVERYWHERE last night. There was one point we saw about 20 of them floating off into the sky. We typically tie ours to strings so the kids can play with them later, next year I think we'll let them go, it's so cool to see a sky full of them! Maybe next year we can get our little town to release a whole bunch around the same time.
Happy 4th! So glad to be FREE!
Hopefully I can get kids to save sparklers next year and I can learn how to use my camera better. It's great fun to make sparkler designs!
Our neighborhood is fantastic during fourth of July. There is so much activity! If you look out our front windows you can see the hills lighting up with the artillery shells and if you look out our back windows you can see them sparkling above the whole neighborhood. The only problem is that you don't get to bed until around midnight no matter when you finish because of all the noise!
