The Glorious Fourth

 

We had a fun Independence Day this year.  Mike had to work until 7pm, so the children and I headed to my mom's for her annual Fourth of July party.  It was incredibly hot, so Katie drove down with her boyfriend.  The rest of us piled into the Mountaineer.  There was some grumbling from the troops that the back seats of my vehicle aren't very comfortable.  At least WE had air conditioning.  Katie's car doesn't.

We weren't sure about traffic, so we gave ourselves and extra half and hour for traveling.  The traffic was light, so we stopped off at McDonald's for a snack and to let some of us cool down.

We were the first to arrive at mom's house.  Most of my sibling tend to run an hour late for gatherings.  We were able to visit with my mom before everyone else arrived.  I'm glad that we had that opportunity.  Mom is usually so busy during her gatherings that we don't see much of her.

After everyone arrived, we headed outside for some water games.  Mom gave all the minor grand-children small water pistols.  The adults all received a few hits before the children turned on each other.

Then the grand children used sponges to fill a bucket with water.  Everyone got a little wet and cooled down.  Katie played with her cousins and had a blast!  She wanted to bond with the younger cousins who don't see her too much,.

After eating hot dogs, burgers and all the traditional side dishes, we headed for home.  Mike beat us home and began grilling corn on the cob and cooking burgers.  I felt terrible letting him know that we had just finished eating.

We headed to a small town about 15 minutes away and watched the fireworks with some good friends.  This town gets so many people from the surrounding area to watch their fireworks that it took us almost 40 minutes to get out of the parking lot that was on the highway.  It was fun, but took us much longer than we had planned.

Katie picked Steve up from work and after everyone had made it home, we set off our small fireworks.  Michigan began to allow larger fireworks and firecrackers this year.  Unfortunately, the drought is so bad, I wouldn't let the older children set off their Roman candles and other traveling fireworks.

We were all so tired from the heat, that all the fireworks didn't get set off and we forgot about the sparklers.  So on July 5, we had Independence Day 2.  All the remaining "safe" displays and sparklers were used and the kids had a great time.  It was fun to see all the neighbor's children watching from their windows.