4th of July - 2012

Tuesday, July 4

It was a little weird not having M&M around for the Fourth of July this year (she was at Oakcrest Girls Camp).  We went to our annual neighborhood parade and pancake breakfast.  It was nice this year to be able to use the new pavilion/bowery that they built at the back of our church parking lot.  We actually had tables that we could sit and eat at this year!  Luke and Kitty rode their scooters for the parade, I helped push Kay on her tricycle, and Blondie rode her roller blades and pushed MJ in the stroller.

After the parade we got out our inflatable pools and let the kids play in them.  It was a pretty hot day so I'm sure it felt good for the kids.  (And Luke decided not to put sunscreen on because he thought that his skin was tan enough and he ended up getting sunburned pretty good on his shoulders.  We also missed a part of Kitty's shoulders and she got a little sunburned as well.)

Look what I found Mom!!  An ant!

My parents came over for dinner and then we did some fireworks at our house.  I made my usual flag cake with the strawberries and blueberries on top.  I also tried a cool drink where you layer red, clear and blue drinks and they stay separated.  They looked really cool and apparently I forgot to take a picture of it.  Here is a link to instructions on how to make the drink and includes pictures if you want to see:  Layered Patriotic Punch

We usually go to a big fireworks show on the 4th, but with M&M gone we decided not to do that this year.  I purchased a pretty good fireworks deal online and we had a nice little show in our front yard.  Because of a really dry summer we had some additional fireworks restrictions, which included parts of our neighborhood, just the next street over.  We live in a pretty well cared for neighborhood though and didn't feel there was much risk for starting a wildfire where we live.

MJ absolutely hated the fireworks.  She sat in Grandma S's lap almost the whole time, just sitting there hugging her!  And my mom tried to keep MJ's ears covered because she especially didn't like the loud sounds.  Kay tolerated the fireworks and sat in my dad's lap the whole time.

DH tried his hand at photographing some of the fireworks:

This was a tiny, awesome fountain called Popcorn Party that looked and sounded like popping popcorn and lasted at least 3 minutes!

Love the aerials that are now legal in Utah!