Home of the Free, Because of the Brave.

It was a great day for a party, a celebration for our country and all the brave people who have helped us get to where we are. Thank You!

My 4 cuties, ready to party!

Cousin Hailee, Auntie Amber and Uncle Scott joined us. Uncle Rick, Auntie Tia and Cousin Brandon arrived a little bit later. Grandma and her friend Susie also spent the 4th with us.

Happy girls!

 

Auntie Tia was hanging out in the back with the munchkins. She said they all decided to get into the dog kennel, silly people LOL.

Grill master at it again, chicken this year...yummy!

Fabulous food, everyone brought tasty dishes...I love pot luck type parties, get to try new stuff and it takes some pressure off the host.

A little after dinner football to help pass the time until dark.

Nice snag babe!

It was supposed to get dark around 9pm, we planned to give Gangster his knock out meds around 7 so they had time to kick in. By 6 he was a mess, so we gave him the pill early and put him in the kennel to help him calm down. It took the pill a good 2 hours to kick in, but it did work and he was able to sleep through the show out front. Don't mind the rust, we haven't used a kennel in like 6 years...it didn't age well, but it did the trick.

Bug helped put the finishing touches on the dessert.

It turned out awesome!

Jason is worse than any kid when it comes to waiting. He had every single person...over 5, telling him no when he kept asking if he could light a few fireworks early. He did let the kids play with the little cherry bombs...they loved them.

Lily would throw handfuls up in the air and stand there as they rained down around her.

Smoke bombs came next...since they are not as cool in the dark, nice argument Jason LOL.

Next he handed out the little things that you pull the cord and string shoots out.

Everyone loved them...well everyone except Brandon. Xander shot one of his onto Brandon's foot...he wasn't amused, but Xander sure was.

The littles all had fun popping them off at each other.

More smoke bombs.

Then the snake things...they seemed extra lame this year.

Scooter time...still trying to hold ALL the kids back from kicking things off too early.

My little beast loved wrestling with his Cousin B.

Mid play fight I told them to freeze and cheese LOL.

Cuties!

Sparklers...he just couldn't wait anymore, had to light something. Good thing he bought a ton.

Everyone got to have at least 3 or 4 sparklers...that just about got us to dark.

Despite the kids not having a ton of experience with fire, they listened pretty well...only Xander ended up with a little burn on the tip of his finger from touching a burned out stick instead of dunking it in the bucket of water like he was told to. Hopefully he has let that lesson sink in.

Lily was my shadow for the night, she ended up in my lap for the whole show...no complaints here :)

Come on already!!

Alright...lets get the show on!

We have the best seats! It is really funny, last year we were the only ones with the real GOOD stuff, and the crowd was a bit smaller. This year 2-3 of the neighbors got the goods and the whole culdesac was out lighting off fireworks until 10:45. We all pretty much ran out together, it was a great show this year...I love this street!

I have no idea how to get good fireworks pics...but I got a couple of half assed ones LOL.

Little man only made it through half the show...when you wake up at 6 in the morning because you are too excited for the fireworks you will probably pass out at 10pm and miss most of the good ones LOL. How he could sleep through all that noise is beyond me.

I thought he was too cute conked out in Uncle Scott's flag chair in his little red, white and blue shirt. He is so cute when he is sleeping :)

We had one scary moment tonight, and it is exactly why we do not let the kids go near the firework lighting area. Unfortunately it freaked out Hayden and Xander so they ended up moving back even farther and sticking close to Grandma for the rest of the show.

Jason lit one of THE BIG ONES and started walking away when we all heard the thunk it makes when it goes flying up...only nothing went flying up. It exploded on the ground. It was the loudest most explosive thing I have ever been near, my brothers are both retired military and said it was probably half of what a grenade is like when it goes off. You can imagine how huge it was...the giant boom you get when they are up in the sky and go off shooting out their beautiful colors, now take that but picture it on the ground 15 feet in front of you. It hurt my teeth and jaw and rattled my chest. If a kid, or even an adult had been near they would be missing parts if not their lives. These things CAN and DO happen...always be safe, don't let pets or children near the area where fireworks are being lit, one mishap could lead to tragedy. Thankfully no one was hurt at all...well other than our ears and teeth...and the kids got a little extra scared. I hope it sticks with them, these thing are potentially deadly and should be treated with the utmost respect.

Our big finale...49 different explosions out of 1 box, wow!

After the show was over we remembered we had 4 roman candles, which Jason let the kids shoot off with his help.

Then we found some neon sparklers that got missed earlier.

What a great day, great food, great company and fabulous entertainment! Can't wait for next year!!

Happy 4th of July everyone!