Fun on the Fourth!

Normally on the 4th, we head to my Mom's for the weekend and go to her company picnic, which is a TON of fun for the kids. They have lots of fun things for the kids to do, pony rides, bounce houses, baby pools full of uncooked macaroni and sand toys, big toy bricks to build with...it's really just a great time! But this year we decided to do something a little different. The lake community behind us has a really nice fireworks show, and that prompts a lot of the people that live there to have big Independence Day parties. Our friends Marvin and Jodi go all out for this occasion, and we decided to stay local and hit their party! There was plenty of food, drinks, and fun to be had! There was a slip-n-slide, pool, swingset, teeter-totter, bikes, scooters, and plenty of battery-powered vehicles around. And that's not even mentioning the HUGE toyroom in the basement! Those kids were entertained for sure...there was something for everyone!

The day started off with rain...actually a nice, steady, soaking rain that we would have been happy to have under any other circumstances. But I needed to mow AND we had a party to attend! I called Jodi and she assured me that the rain would stop...and if it didn't, we would just make do inside. And guess what? It did stop, around 3:00, so that was good! We didn't get there for a little while after though, because we wanted to let Noah nap as long as possible...it was going to be a long night! But when we got there, we were happy to see that they had a great turnout, despite the rain. Kids were everywhere!!!

We found a spot for our chairs and started mingling. The kids wasted no time getting down to the very important business of playing with their friends. I don't even think we were all out of the car yet when Kendall took off with her peeps! We met up with lots of our friends, and even met some of Jodi & Marvin's neighbors that we didn't already know.

Kendall immediately rounded up the kids and they decided to have their own "kid party" on the other side of the fence, under this little tree. They moved a mini-tramp, a kid-sized covered swing, blankets and chairs out there and had a picnic and played games. What fun!

Noah entertained himself almost the entire evening in the toy room, playing cars with some other little boys. Barry or I would check on him periodically, but he was content to sit and play. What a relief! Last year, he wouldn't stay put...we ran after him the entire time! (You know how that is...and sometimes it's not very fun!)

When it was time for fireworks, a lot of the people who live at the lake headed out to their boats to watch the fireworks from the water, and the rest of us moved our chairs out to the front lawn, in the very near vicinity of the "kid party". I'm surprised we were allowed access...LOL!!! Jodi started passing out the glow-in-the-dark bracelets and necklaces, as the real fun of the Fourth was getting ready to begin. The fireworks started, amidst the kids screaming, "3....2....1....GO!!!" every time they thought the next one was coming. They were convinced that the people setting them off could hear them. It was funny at first, but after about 20 fireworks, we were asking them to stop screaming. When the fireworks were done, we wasted no time loading up and heading home...those kids needed to get to bed. But alas, Kendall remembered that we had sparklers at home... and she was NOT going to let it go. So we figured, what the hell? Let's go ahead and get 'em out. What will it take, like 10 minutes??? Yep, right about that! We let the kids do two boxes of sparklers, which they were happy with, and then off to bed!! Barry, Sheri, and I stayed up for a little while chatting and watching SNL "Best of Will Farrell" on DVD, but I guess we were all tired, because Barry fell asleep and Sheri was not far behind when she jumped up and stated that she had to go! No biggie... it was a long day! To see the pics, click here!!

Really, what more could we have asked for?

Did you enjoy the Fourth of July? What did you do to celebrate??