4th of July Fun

Summer is such a fun time. I have many fun memories about all the fun things we did during the summer when I was younger. One of my favorite holidays, (well I really just love any holiday) but the 4th of July has always been at the top of my list. We would go to my Grandma and Grandpa Leary's house for breakfast which they held under their carport. It was always so much fun to have breakfast outside with our cousins. We would sometimes play on the slip n' slide after breakfast and then I think we would go buy fireworks at the firework stand and anxiously await starting the night time festivities with our neighbors. I remember some years having about 5-7 families over (all with several kids) and how much fun we all had together watching (and lighting) the fireworks. One year we probably had 20 kids in the road and we all lit a ground bloomer at the same time. We thought it was SO COOL. And really...it was! We had great 4th of Julys.

This year my mom and dad decided to bring back the breakfast tradition and we went to their house this year and ate breakfast under their carport (so fun that they have a carport too!) It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it. They played in the water (even though it wasn't very warm) and we had a chance to sit and visit with each other. I am so happy that they started up this tradition again.

Ben came up with the "grand" idea of getting the snaps to pop by holding a sparkler to them, here are Sam and Ben really involved in their experiment and burning grandpa's carport at the same time.

Later that afternoon, Joe took Sam and Ben to see the new Ice Age movie, which they loved! Then we had a BBQ with our family at home. That night Joe stayed home with Jack since he was already in bed and I took Sam and Ben over to my parents to watch fireworks. We all had a really fun day!

The next day we had Joe's brother and sister over for a BBQ and more fireworks. My kids love spending time with their cousins and us adults love the chance to visit with each other. It was another really good day!