4th Of July 2018

On the morning of 4th of July, Michael and I drove down to Ga-Ga & Pa's with the trailer. I had the following 12 days off and family was flying in from Wyoming so the kids and I were going to be sleeping in the trailer. We did not want set up the trailer on the 4th of July though since their neighborhood is crazy with fireworks and we didn't want a hole burnt through the canopy. 

Chillin' under the gazebo....Bill & Christina came and brought a friend....I honestly can't remember her name. Michael's Dad also got to come for a little bit. 

A couple years ago Christina and I helped the kids make 4th of July shirts. Those shirts are now too small so it was time to make new shirts. I found these ideas on Pinterest and I decided to give the kids choices so they could make their shirts look individual instead of all uniform like last time. 

Also instead of buying all white shirts I went ahead and bought Jack a red shirt and Owen a blue shirt. 

This is Jack's staged smile. Drives me crazy so I usually say something to try to make him give me a natural smile. 

My go to phrase is..."You look like your pooping" and that does it! 

That's a nice natural smile! 

I traced the star shape and cut it out of freezer page. I ironed the freezer paper onto the shirt and then I let the kids use a pencil eraser to dab paint all around the star. 

All done....I hadn't pulled the freezer paper off yet. 

Ella decided to do fireworks. I used toilet paper tubes and cut slits in them about halfway up and then fanned them out so they looked like an octopus. Then I dipped them in the paint and had Ella tell me where she wanted them to go. These ones were a bit more difficult just because the paint didn't transfer easily. Plus it used a TON of paint. I was actually worried that I wouldn't have enough, but thank goodness it all worked out. 

Caleb decided to one big star just like Jack did. 

This is after I pulled the freezer paper off. Even though it's the same design since his shirt is white it's still different. 

Zeke wanted to do a big star as well, but he didn't really want to mix his paint colors. 

He did blue around the top and then red around the bottom. I love seeing them be creative. 

Addison...talk about a cutie! She decided to do three smaller stars. 

Again...so much fun creativity! I love it! 

Anna wanted to have fireworks too! 

At first Owen didn't want to participate, but then once he saw how much fun the other kids were having he decided he wanted to make one. He wanted to put fireworks on his and I wasn't sure if we'd have enough paint left, so I had him wait. When it was time for him to paint his shirt I went outside and said, "Okay Owen it's time to do the fireworks". He was SO excited! He ran out to the front yard and I hollered at him to see where he was going. I didn't even think about the way I was saying it made it sound like it was time to shoot off fireworks. Once he realized that I meant the fireworks on his shirt he wasn't nearly as excited! He did enjoy making one though. 

Cute festive kids! 

Happy Independence Day! 

Modeling their handy work! 

Addison 

Jack

Zeke

Goofy Owen

Normal Owen

Ella

Anna

Caleb

Me and my man...Michael had to work the next day and he wanted to make it out of the neighborhood before all the festivities started so he left around 6pm. 

My cute babes! 

You can't really see it, but I'm wearing my long blue dress that I just got at Value Village earlier in the week. I also made a star shirt too so I slipped that over my dress. 

These kids...I love them all so much! I love that they enjoy spending time together and I love that they have each other as "cousins".

Bill also had to work the next day so he headed out early as well. Christina and I had so much fun with the kids. I love this lady! 

Michael had taken the Owen to the store earlier to get some fireworks. I told him to not spend more than $20 - $30, but fireworks are so ridiculously expensive he ended up spending $60. 

But the kids enjoy them so much it ends up being worth it. They did pop-its, smoke bombs and snakes. We wanted to wait until it got darker to do the actual sparkly ones. 

I had seem people take pictures like this before and I thought it would be fun. I love how it turned out and I love how Zeke is looking at Ella so cute.

Since we needed to wait for it to get darker Pa brought out the fire pit...or is that considered a tower?? 

The kids got to roast marshmallows and little smokies. 

Owen decided to get all patriotic and wave the flag around. 

Ga-Ga had set up a station on the porch rail so she could make the kids their smores. 

The girls hanging with Pa waiting for the fireworks to start. 

That is one burnt marshmallow! 

I love how pretty Ga-Ga & Pa's house looks with the bunting. 

Love taking selfies with my kids. Jackson looks too cool for school with his fun haircut! 

Owen is getting so big!

Of course the picture with Ella would come out blurry! :( 

My Zeke Man! 

Time for sparklers! 

This was Owen's big purchase! $30!!! It actually was really cool. I posted the video of it going off on Facebook. 

During the fireworks Ella asked for my phone so she could take pictures. She actually got some really good shots.

The neighbors around my parents house got crazy with fireworks. They spend thousands of money of fireworks!

I think this is one of our fireworks. 

I love this shot that Ella took! 

The next morning the boys favorite thing to do is run around the neighborhood collecting all sorts of firework debris that they can then use to create stuff. 

Jack used part of a Roman candle and another firework to make a sword and Zeke found this huge box that we tore apart and then I traced an ax on the cardboard about 20 times and then cut all those out and taped them together to another Roman candle to make an ax. They were both actually pretty impressive. I love it when they use their imagination!