A Spectacular 4th of July.

I love the 4th of July. I love celebrating the freedom I have because I live in this great country. I love the tradition that we have each of year spending our fourth with some great friends. Our girls look forward to going to the Ewings every year. I think it would break their hearts if it didn't happen for some reason one year. Oh well we don't need to think about that because everyone involved loves it and we will be doing it for a long time. Our evening started it out with some yummy food. A few of us even got a little patriotic in our cooking. After dinner there were lots of activities for everyone. The kids had a blast playing volleyball. And then they added a twist and played with water balloons. They were having a good time but didn't feel like they were getting wet enough so the ditched the towels and decided to toss them over at people. It was organized chaos but the kids were having a blast. Pretty soon all organization was gone and it was a complete water fight. They all got wet and had a great time. The dads found some more water balloons to fill up and the kids waited patiently for them. Then when the balloons were ready the dad's had a different idea then the kids. . . They threw them at the kids. It was so funny because the kids were just shocked. Everyone really had fun with the water. I think we will have to do that next year too. Once the water was over everyone played different things while we waited for the sun to go down. Madison and Kevin played some one on one. Kevin was surprised by some of her moves. He hasn't played with her since she has been getting some tips from someone at church. She is really becoming a great player.
It was finally time for fireworks. We did things different this year and I really like how things ran so smoothly. Fireworks really scare me and chaos during fireworks make a few of us moms be on edge. Well there was no chaos this year. We started out by doing the little kids stuff first in the back yard contained. They did pops and sparklers.
Ashley still wasn't sure about sparklers. This first one that Kevin helped her with, when he took his hand away so she could do it on her own she dropped it. He explained that the fire couldn't get to her and wouldn't go past a certain point on the stick. Then she was. . .
holding them by herself while it was being lit and dancing around with the rest of them. After the sparklers it was time for the tank wars. Before the tank wars there had to be tank war boot camp. Mr. David had to give everyone instructions before the war could start so everyone stayed safe. Kevin was in charge of helping any of our girls so he was more generous then I would have been. He let Madison and Allison light their own. Once the tanks were all gone it was time to move to front yard for the bigger fireworks. This is where I think everything went so much smoother then in years past. All the kids found a seat and sat and watched. There was no worry's of anyone getting hurt. There was only two people lighting fireworks and we had a great evening. This was one of the most memorable 4ths. We are so blessed to have such great friends that we have such a great time with.