Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate each year. I just love how relaxed it is . . . we don't do a lot of planning or special cooking or preparing for it, but it's always an enjoyable time with friends.
This year, we really had no plans at all for how we were going to celebrate. We had just returned from our two week vacation to Colorado the weekend prior to the fourth (which fell on a Tuesday this year). At church on Sunday, Tia asked me if we had plans. When I told her we didn't, she invited us over for the evening on Monday, July 3rd. Russ, Lisa, and Chloe Jo were invited, as well. Initially, we had planned to swim for a bit, but it poured rain for several hours just before dusk. Instead, we each brought a few snacks and a few fireworks, and really just had a super laid back, easy evening.
Independence Day cuties - Sadie, Chloe Jo, Brecklyn, Brianna, Brooke, and Brenson
Lisa, Russ, and Chloe Jo
I love how in our family photo several of my children have their ears plugged. I thought maybe we had outgrown hating the noise of the fireworks, but we weren't there this year yet.
Cousin BFFs are the best!
So thankful for these friendships!
Sadie and Brenson are so cute together (future . . . hmmmm?) :-)
Brecklyn
Brooke
My sweet twinbies
After snacking and visiting, we decided to start shooting off our fireworks around 8:00pm. We first started with the small stuff that the kids could do without much help. Sparklers are always a big hit!
My fearless little Brooke absolutely loved the fireworks! The noise never bothered her.
As you can see, the same can't be said for Brenson. I felt so bad that I forgot his ear muffs, but he had no problem borrowing a pair of Sadie's!
I didn't get any photos of baby Caroline (who is only about 6 weeks old), but Tia spent the majority of the evening inside with her. Meanwhile, our guys spent hours (yes, hours) shooting off a ridiculous amount of fireworks. The kids actually ended up getting kind of bored watching them.
We continued to bust out the sparklers to keep them entertained :-)
Finally, at about 10:00pm, we packed up our crew and headed home. We're typically very careful not to keep our kids out late, but we were having such a good time that we bent the rules. Even after a solid two hours of shooting off fireworks, Ross still had several things he hadn't used! We also had a few small things (which is all we ever buy) that we took home and shot off the next night, on the actual 4th.
We always cherish time spent with wonderful friends!
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