Happy July 4th - A Day Late

I commend those bloggers that I follow that got their Happy 4th posted yesterday, on the 4th, but I'm just not that organized and together in my life.  This here are just hectic and that's just how we live.  Wednesday being July 4th meant no speech therapy for Alex, so that really threw his schedule off and that means a day of playing, "it's ok AJ, what else would you like to do?"  He actually woke up at 6:30 am, another difference that would set our day in motion, but we just roll with the punches around here.



My husband had to work, but that's ok I guess when you get double time. When he got off we were supposed to head to his sister's and spend the evening with her family, but as most of yoy know if you have been following my blog for awhile or live around here, the temperatures have been close to 110 everyday for about a week and no rain in sight. Everything is dry and fires are everywhere. Well, they live in Tennessee and it's not just dry here, but their backyard is a HUGE field, although nice sometimes, well when it's dry and you want to shoot fireworks, it's really not so nice. They issued a warning of if you start a fire with fireworks it would be a $2,500 fine, so yeah ummm, I'm not paying that fine. We thought we might still go there and eat and hang out, but with my husband having to be at work today at 7 am, we decided we would just go up this evening after he gets off work, since he's off Friday and we would have more time with them.

Shortly after that my wonderful friend and neighbor came over to ask if we wanted to cookout with them and shoot fireworks that the other neighbor had purchased.  Absolutely!  So, my husband bought some hamburgers and hot dogs for our family and ribs for everyone and I had already made a fresh banana pudding.  Once he got off work, he ran by my parents and picked up our daughter and home he came.  It was time to get the Fourth started.

We went over to Liz's and the men started grilling while the ladies and Alex sat inside in the air conditioning and cut up.  Then it came time for the, "Who wants cheese on their burger?" question.  Well, everyone except Liz.  My husband responds with, "Are you not American on American's Birthday?"  I said, "You do know they call it American cheese."  And that set the tone for the evening of just being goofy.  Later, when she went to make her "unAmerican burger," she put all he topping on upside down.  Things happened to her throughout the night and the reason always was, "because she's unAmerican."  After we ate we sat back and relaxed a little trying to let our food settle and hoping it would cool off outside.  While we relaxed we turned some music on and... well... this is a video that Liz captured on her iPhone 3GS and then I downloaded on my computer and uploaded to YouTube for posting to my blog, I apologize for the quality.

Yes, my son in all his "Alexness."  He didn't hurt his head by the way, but she stopped filming because we were all laughing at how it seemed a force pulled him into that table.  Then we went outside to see what Liz's husband Mike was up to.

Skip had his radio on and AJ started dancing again

my "Momma really?" look I get from my beautiful daughter who has become as camera shy as I am

Daddy and Alex watching Mike

Mike putting five bottle rockets together to shoot at one time

"What's all that noise?"

"You're being too loud Mr.!"

running, skipping, dancing

taking a rest and grabbing a drink

 We went back inside because it was just too dang HOT out there, the weather man reported that it was 102 and we were playing on payment.  We watched some America's Funnest Home Videos and goofed off some more.  Mike and Skip stayed outside in the heat the whole time, but my husband had to be inside with the women, haha.  It was finally getting dark around 8:30, so we headed back outside hoping to start shooting around 9:00.

"Hey guys there's a frog over here"

"umm, you mean you can touch those things?"
Mike caught it for him

yeah, that's my ten year old that touched a snake and is scared of a toad

I held him

firework time

she got the good chair and put it up under the tree so nothing would fall on her

Alex, my husband, and Lyssa

Liz, with Skip and Mike in the background

Our neighbor Skip with Mike in the background
I know he has a mean look, but he's not mean he's a nice guy and he even bought all the fireworks.
He's the go-to when something happens in the neighborhood and he's guaranteed to make you laugh with his stories.

Her, "If I smile will you stop taking pictures of me?" look

Skip tired of the small stuff, so he lit one of the big ones and tried to hurry away

AJ showing Mike which ones he wants to see next

trying to keep him from getting in the way and getting burned

Strobe Lights, yeah those are always a headache fun

"is that it?"

excuse the tree above my head, I had no idea it was going to go that many stories straight up

done helping clean up

"But Mike you still have so many of these left."

We may not have gotten to go to my sister-in-laws, but we are going tonight and we had a great 4th of July, celebrating our country's birthday with great friends. This was the first year Alex actually saw and responded to fireworks, last year he wasn't even one yet. I heard him "ooooooooohhhh" and "aaaaahhhhhhh" so many times and it was so cute and I jumped a few times when I wasn't paying attention or a small one was really loud and I thought it was going to be just a fountain. We made memories that I hope we never forget and I hope the pictures will show AJ how we celebrated his second 4th of July. We all came in and took showers and to bed we went. I hope everyone had a great Fourth!