Happy 4th!

How blessed we are.  The rain came in early, and passed over quickly tonight - just in time for us to all head out at dusk and watch all the neighborhood fireworks.  You can see Madison above, a good distance from the launch point in the middle of the street, yet there's quite a bit of excitement out there, explosions of color and noise.  And that was just one area.  Further down the cul-de-sac, there were more fireworks being launched, and behind the house, and down the street, and pretty much all through the area.  To begin with when fireworks purchases were not legal in Georgia, it was pretty limited around here.  But now it's open season, and this neighborhood sounds like a war zone on the Fourth of July.  Tonight was no exception.  The great thing though was the respect for the folks going to bed - the commotion stopped pretty much by 9:00 or 9:30.  Until then though, it was simply amazing.  And Madison just loved it - she's enjoyed fireworks a lot more this year, really looking forward to the party tonight.  

Here she is with something new that Daddy has never even used before.  It is like a sparkler on steroids, launching upward or outward a blaze of sparks.  She kept coming back to one of our neighbors for more, and like any good dealer, he had a ton of sparklers for the kids!

Here's Madison with a few of the updated sparklers.  The kids were running around with them across the grassy lawns, screaming and yelling and having the greatest time.  It used to be that you would be required to go out to a place that shot off fireworks like the Mall of Georgia, Cumming Fairgrounds, Lake Lanier Islands, Helen, Stone Mountain, or some place like that.  And inevitably, everyone else was going there too so you had these immense lines of traffic just to leave these places and long waits to get home, plus the worries about weather or concerns about people having a little too much fun or alcohol.  But now with fireworks legal in Georgia, we have just as much fun and we don't need to go anywhere.  Sure, these fireworks aren't as ginormous as the ones you see at an event.  But we'll see some at en event soon enough (two days from now, in fact), and honestly, these are more personal and fun.  

This is the second year our neighbor Paul had given so much to the kids for the Fourth of July.  Madison couldn't wait!  He has a relative that owns a fireworks place, so his personal costs weren't as much as others.  But still, his generosity was such a blessing to us, and more specifically Madison.

Here she is one more time, having a wonderful Fourth of July.  It's become just as good as Halloween in our neighborhood, a nice time for neighbors to get together and celebrate something for the kids.

But that's not the only thing we did today - it was quite a full day!

Introducing the First Annual Big Foot Races.  We went to Nana and Ye-Ye's house today for a great meal, all cooked out with salads and corn and grilled hamburgers.  It's all traditional, and it was all delicious.  The family came over, and we had a great time together, as you can see all dressed up in patriotic outfits and ready to party.  Madison even got to play a game of Uno, which she loves.

Rounds one and two of Uno were pretty quick, but that third round lasted about forty-five minutes!  It was one of those rounds where you were hoping someone would win, and towards the end it just didn't matter - so long as somebody won soon!

But we had a lot of fun with outdoor games as well.  You can see Nana here, successfully knocking off the red, white, and blue spray paint cans with some hose on her head, anchored by three tennis balls.

And here's Mommy and Daddy racing with those Big Foot pads.  It was basically cardboard feet strapped to flip-flops, but it was funny!

And we were doing toss-across with dog toys here, but you can see how Abbie sort of got into the game too!

In any event, it was quite a day today, a perfect Fourth of July, really.  We had our traditional patriotic music playing, and everyone had their red, white and blue on.  The food was great, and the fireworks tonight were special. 

Happy Independence Day!