4th of July Festivities

For the 4th of July this year, we had Robin and Nathan and Robin's parents over for dinner. There were burgers and corn on the cob and watermelon and mud pie. Yum!!

After dinner we played outside for a bit while the boys played Bocce Ball. Ellie took to Robin and decided she was her new best friend!

As it started getting later, we pulled out the sparklers and spinners and visited with the neighbors as we waited for the fireworks to begin at dusk.

The kids thought the flower spinners were great, but Ellie told me they were stinky. =D

It takes a long time for it to get dark here in MT (10 pm), but it was fun to just hang out and wait. The kids thought it was fun to play on the blanket in the grass, and the sparklers kept us entertained.

Finally, it was dark enough for some fireworks! We intended to head over to the pond to see the fireworks, but instead we just put out blankets on our front lawn and enjoyed watching them over the neighborhood.

It was great, except for the occasional stray firework that rained down death and destruction on us.

Oh, wait... that was just camera operator error. Oops. =D No death and destruction after all! Hooray!

It started raining and the party moved from the lawn to the porch. The rain didn't seem to dampen the spirits of the people shooting off fireworks, though, and we still enjoyed the show. After a while Robin, Nathan and family left, and Eliana went to bed. We stayed up and played with sparklers for a bit, but it was obvious as we turned in before midnight that the celebration was over.

Happy Birthday, America!!