Celebrating the Fourth

Fishing at Grandpa's pond

Andrew caught one!

While the big boys fished with the daddys and Grandpa, the little ones played with Grandma.

These two are T.R.O.U.B.L.E!

Grandma found bubble guns for the kids and Hannah was the happiest girl in town!

Look out, Grandpa! You are under attack from the littlest grand kids.

Then it was time for some fireworks.

Hannah wanted nothing to do with the firework fun and stayed on the porch the whole time yelling for us to come and play with her.

The sunset was A.mazing!

Hannah wanted to help me catch some shots of the sunset, so I took some of her running in the ditch. It was not easy to catch this girl on the move!

One of my favorites!

"Look! I'm not scared of Buster anymore!"

And yes, she is running barefoot on the dirt road. Feet.of.steel!

And then it was time for some 4-wheeler rides.

When we got home, the neighborhood fireworks were in full swing. So we busted out the headphones and sat outside and watched them. Even Hannah watched, as long as she was being held by a parent and had her headphones on, she was fine. Overall it was a very fun 4th of July!

Fireworks!

The boys watching the fireworks, and yes, Andrew is that sweaty. It was so hot that night. There was no breeze and it was too hot to really enjoy the fireworks.

Someday he won't appreciate this picture, but I couldn't help myself.

chillaxing

brothers

We tried to watch our neighborhood fireworks on the Fourth, but it was so hot, we weren't really into it. Jonathan wanted to stay up and watch them, but he didn't like the noise and wore his noise cancellation headphones.

The best part of the night, was when the boys went home with Grandma and Grandpa for a sleepover. The boys were so excited and so was I, but it wasn't so great for Grandma and Grandpa. Jonathan didn't go to sleep until after midnight and was up at 5:45 am asking for a drink. Grandma sent him back to bed, but he was up again at 6:30. Such a short night. He was so tired when I picked him up that afternoon, but they had so much fun!

Fireworks!

Jonathan watching the fireworks.

All the boys setting off little fireworks.

Keith holding Andrew, while his friend Drew sets off a sparkler with no fear.

Jonathan hanging out with Emily.

"It's too loud!"

Watching a huge fireworks display in our driveway.

Andrew liked the fireworks, but not the noise. So, Keith gave him some headphones to block out the sound. Andrew called them speaker phones.
And please don't mock his outfit. He was in pjs and needed shoes and really needed to go to bed!

Watching the fireworks with our neighbors.

We had dinner with friends on Saturday night and the older boys had little fireworks to set off. Andrew was freaked out and wanted nothing to do with the noise. But he started to warm up to them about the time we headed for home. He also saw lots of big fireworks in the sky as we drove home and those were super cool and quiet.

So, when we got home, we told him he could watch more fireworks after his bath. I think that may have been his fastest bath on record.

Every year, our neighbor sets up an elaborate, amazing fireworks show. They shoot them off right outside our house and we sit in our driveway and watch and hope the boys don't wake up. Last year they slept through it, and Jonathan slept through it again this year. But we decided to let Andrew stay up WAY past him bedtime and watch this year, and he LOVED it! Every day since, he asks if it's Fireworks Day. We have tried to explain that it was only for one day, but that is a very hard concept when some neighbor kids are still setting off little ones throughout the week. Hopefully next year he won't be so afraid of the noise!