4th Fun

Even though Mother Nature tried to foil every possible plan I had to celebrate our nation's birthday, we still managed to find a bit of festivities to make the day feel different and unique.

We started off the day with hugs and waves goodbye to Rich as he had to put in a long day and nearly most of the night at the hospital. With him absent, I knew I was a bit more limited to what I wanted to do with the kids. My first plan was to swim and have a picnic. That didn't seem as exciting or enjoyable when we awoke to a gloomy gray constant cloud cover and a bit of rain.

Then I thought we could spend a day exploring Raven Run, a 470-acre nature sanctuary with more than 8 miles of hiking trails, a nature center and bird blind for nature observation and education. It's only a twenty minute drive from our house. But the thought of massive mud made me reconsider. I inquired if the boys wanted to still check it out, but the lure of the new PS2 games and cool shows on TV took hold and they simply wanted to stay put. Josh explained that he really just didn't want to miss the fireworks. That did need to be considered since it was really late, like 2 PM. I nearly laughed out loud since we had at least seven good hours before the night sky lit up.

Their choice was fine by me. The break from the homework and constant go, did make the day feel special. We needed a quiet day for once. It was nice to actually not go anywhere for a change. Though I did make a quick run to Hobby Lobby for a few more discounted 4th of July decorations. I love that place!

Promptly around 9:30 PM, when it was dark out (thanks to the rain clouds) the fireworks began. You see I don't have to leave my home to witness beautiful displays of color and light in the night sky. I just had to step outside my door. Yes, technically the huge exploding kind are illegal in Kentucky, but they are not in Indiana and Tennessee. So every other neighbor seemed to have flocked either north or south for the good stuff. I was up getting dressed when it sounded like bombs were going off above our house. One quick peek out the window and yes, the fireworks were just above our roof. I was suddenly quite pleased it was very wet outside. The first year Rich was in Kentucky on the 4th, I was in Utah with our newborn babies and Trey. He called and told me how crazy the neighbors show was and that fireworks dotted the sky in every direction. Lexington is the same. People must spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on near commercial grade fireworks. I am always impressed, but a bit nervous for these everyday folk (a few are probably a bit tipsy too) blasting them in the street. It does make for a fantastic show right from your front porch.
We stuck with the legal fountain variety from Sam's Club.Trey begged to buy them and was so excited to watch the huge ones for our finale.
Gotta have some sparklers on the 4th!
MattWe had a little crowd for our display.Kaitlyn LOVED it.Brynn- not so much. She's our first ever to be afraid of fireworks.

Tossing some poppers.Oh, and this is what happens when you don't take out the Sparkling Tree out of the box. Oops.After ours ended, the boys headed down the cul-de-sac for the French's show.I convinced Brynn to tag along.We wrapped up the party around 11 PM since Rich had to be back at the hospital at 7 AM. What a day!