Independence Day

We celebrated the Fourth of July on the 3rd since it was a Friday night and we wouldn't have to get up early on Saturday morning. Braden was so excited to watch Daddy set off the fireworks. He had fun with the sparklers, but they kept burning out. In fact, a lot of our fireworks seemed to burn out quickly (note to self: shop somewhere other than "Uncle Sam's Fireworks" next summer). The buzzing flowers only buzzed for about five seconds and the big cone thingy was less than impressive. We had some smaller cones that put on a nice little show, but overall, our display was, well... kind-of piddly. Of course, this comes from a girl who comes from a family that had a big get-together every fourth with homemade ice cream (the kind made in the freezer you have to take turns sitting on and cranking by hand) and BOXES of fireworks. Oh, well... David and I kept hearing fireworks going off the next night (on the actual fourth), so we stepped out into the driveway and watched all the neighbors' displays. It was pretty impressive! I told David I wished I could take one big panoramic picture with everyone's fireworks going off at the same time. It would have been pretty cool. Braden proved to us the night before that he has no business staying up past 8:00 (would you like some cheese with that whine?), so we didn't wake him up to watch, and just enjoyed it ourselves.


During the day on the fourth: Cameron cooling off with a chilled teether and David showing Braden how he used to pretend he was a secret agent by lighting a smoke bomb and throwing it to make a smoke screen.