Fourth of July Eve

On July third, we had a somewhat quiet day. Everyone came over to our house to see it and stayed for an hour or so. Then off to the school playground for a little while. And then Mom took her three oldest granddaughters grocery shopping while the rest of us had lunch. We followed that up with an afternoon up at our house. I had been neglecting housework and we were having company that night, so while everyone was busy on the computer, I caught up on laundry and cleaning. It was all lovely.

Oh dear. I am in love with this picture. Sunshine, lace curtain, sweet girl totally absorbed in her lacy, sunny, doll filled world.

 (And stacks of books. I like stacks of books. But I am a little tired of these particular stacks of books. I need to read them so I know if they are worth building another bookshelf for. Justin is already sure they aren't.)

The three five year olds, doing something or other out of the haymow roof door thing. I had to try really hard not to be a helicopter parent while these three did their thing. 

But it was worth letting them go. They had such a good time together.

I am perpetually amazed about how intent and focused they can be on five year old boy business. They were trying to devise a way to get a bucket of water up to the haymow for water gun refilling. 

Crazy kids and a bonfire. 

Smoke and steam haze

If there is anything more delightfully American than a bunch of happy kids with sparklers at dusk on a summer evening.... Well there just isn't anything more American. So I don't even have to qualify that. 

Oh the delight!

Do you see that grin? 

The observing adults

Then we set off some Chinese lanterns that Mum had bought last winter but we kept forgetting to set off. They were awesome!

The kids were entranced

The Chinese lantern was being slightly difficult to set free, so the kids had to go poke at the fire for awhile. 

But then it went. 

They were worth the wait

Setting off another one

The third one was decidedly difficult

Since it functions like a hot air balloon, they put it over the fire, so the heat would help it up. And it worked! Breanna was quite clever to think of that.

The last sparkler. I think we went through 60. Hey, 12 kids tear through them pretty fast!

Just to round off the night of pyromaniac delights, we set off a $20 pack of fireworks from Wal-mart. (This is the direct result of going shopping with three small boys. They were sure we needed fireworks. How could I resist three such earnest faces?)

It won't ever replace a big fireworks show, but it was fun!