All That Remains

Can I just say that we had a fabulous Fourth of July? Yes, I know- FoJ is SO last week in the blog world, but behind Christmas, FoJ has become my favorite holiday. And ours was such a fun day that I wanted to share, but I haven't been able to grab enough minutes all at one time to actually sit down and blog about it all. You know, because I've been busy with keeping our house show-worthy at all times which means I'm constantly in clean-mode which is so against my nature that I think my body might blow up at any moment. But that would be too huge of a mess and what if strangers show up just seconds after the explosion and want to see the house?? We'd never get this thing sold. Have I mentioned our house is on the market? It's killing me, people. And it's a slow painful death. Blowing up would be better. But I digress...

Our FoJ day started out with us watching a neighborhood parade from the comfort of Greg and Tracey's front yard. With the temperature just a few degrees below the heat of hell and the humidity at 98%, it was perfect parade watching weather. If you like to experience the feeling of melting while listening to marching bands and ambulance sirens (if you're in our part of Texas, you have to pronounce it sy-reens with equal emphasis on both syllables).

Here's Micah. I happened to be fortunate enough to catch his only happy moment of the morning on film. In 10 years when we look back on these pictures, we'll only remember a happy little boy excited about the day's festivities. For now, I remember the truth- he spent the remainder of the morning whining about one thing or another until he ended up in the house watching PBS Kids. Because nothing is more American than letting the TV babysit your children.

Too bad there wasn't a Little Miss Firecracker contest because Piper totally would have won, if I do say so myself. And since I learned how to make my own tutus, you can bet she'll have one for every holiday! I can't wait to debut her green and gold one for Baylor homecoming!

It really was a fun morning. Tons of people from our church community were there and we also had the opportunity to make connections with people we had never met. Plus, the people who own the local Chick-Fil-A came out and set up CFA sweet tea and lemonadeon Greg and Tracey's front porch. They're awesome people! And CFA sweet tea can almost make you forget about the heat and the potential that one of your children came thisclose to death at the hand of his mother who was fed up with the whining and griping. Almost.

After the parade and lunch at Greg and Tracey's, we all came home for a much-needed nap. After the nap, we headed out to our friends Nathan and Amanda's house for FoJ Part II. It was awesome. Again, many of our "family" from our church community came out. This is the 2nd year we've hung out at Nathan and Amanda's for FoJ and I think it's becoming tradition. At least, I hope it is.

This year, our friends Mike and Abby, who live across ths street from Nathan and Amanda (may I abbreviate? Henceforth, Nathan and Amanda will be N&A. Carry on.) loaned them their huge inflatable waterslide for the kids to play on during the par-tay. And make no mistake, there were a TON of kids. I stopped counting when I got to 17. Because 3 is the new 2 and 4 is quickly becoming the new 3, let's just say that our little church community is doing it's part to be fruitful and multiply. So N&A had the inflatable slide and a small pool and the children thought they had died and gone to heaven. My boys, in particular, couldn't get enough of the slide. In fact, they enjoyed it so much (read: wore themselves out) that they slept until 9:00 the following morning! Thank you, Lord, for the blessed 5th of July miracle!! I think I'm going to let Abby know I'll be bringing the boys over everyday to wear themselves out.

Here's Cade making the hardest decision of his day: to stay in the pool or go to the waterslide.

Here's Piper. Her eyes are begging to go to the slide, but it was for big kids. No way was I going to chance her getting up there and then freaking out, meaning that I would have to heave my oversized body to the top of the waterslide and fetch her down. Uh-uh.

Once the sun started to go down, the pyromaniacs, I mean husbands, had a fine time setting things on fire. We actually had about 20 times as many sparklers as children which meant that every kid who wanted one or ten definitely got his/her fair share. Did I mention that a great majority of the kids were 6 and under? If you've never been a part of the mass chaos of 50 kids under 6 holding sticks shooting fire, then you have not lived, my friend. Mike, of the aformentioned Mike and Abby, had this flame-blowing canister thing he was using to quickly light the sparklers- if he ever decides to become a super hero and super villain, that flame-blowing canister thing can definitely be his weapon of choice. During the Sparkler Extravaganza, the boys tried really hard to "accidentally" set the grass on fire. And succeeded more times than I'd like to recall.

Captain America made a cameo appearance, presumably to save us mere mortals from the "accidental" grass fires.

Micah was a bit unsure of his sparklers at first (note how he's holding it about 10 feet away from his body), but soon began waving them around like a Harry Potter wand. My arm became a victim of his wand at some point.

When it got really dark, the pyros put on a fabulous fireworks display.

Micah saved the best seat in the house for his friend, Katie Jayne.

Apparently, Micah and Katie Jayne were creating some sparks of their own that evening.

After the fireworks display and when the kids were tired beyond belief, we took them back to Grag and Tracey's where they fell asleep and we had some refreshing beverages and great conversation.

Overall, the day was a blast! God bless America!