How we celebrated the 4th of July

Bearhug and Cuddlebug like to make lists. They make all kinds of lists, lists of what they like to eat, lists of their friends, lists of things they'd like for Christmas, lists of numbers, lists of things they've cleaned or chores they've done, lists of what they'd like to do today, you name it. So it was no surprise when BH decided to make a checklist for what he planned to do yesterday.

Here it is:
-- "brefast"
-- get "drest"
-- wii
-- lunch
-- bath
-- Brother's turn on the wii
-- "trapolean"
-- fireworks
-- dinner
-- party

We don't always follow their "to do" lists but as it turns out, this pretty much sums up how our day went, although not quite in that order :).

Dh went a little nuts buying fireworks, and we had a joint firework display with some of our neighbors. It was the first time we've done that.

For a long time, we avoided fireworks displays because of our sons' sensitivity to loud noises and crowds. Last year we went to see the one at the mall, but in order to get a good parking spot so we could see we had to show up several hours early. We spent hours in and around the car just waiting around (we walked to a nearby Waffle House for dinner to kill some time) until it got dark. FINALLY, the fireworks display started, but by that time, the boys were cranky and overstimulated. We couldn't even listen to the patriotic music on the radio b/c Little Bitty went ballistic every time we tried to turn off the sound to his Thomas & Friends video. The fireworks only lasted about 20 minutes (all that waiting for 20 minutes?!) and then we had the pleasure of fighting traffic to get out of there which took another hour.

So you can see why this year we were willing to fork out some money to buy our own fireworks and avoid that whole fiasco again. Also, we felt like CB and BH, at least, are now old enough to be able to understand to stay away from the fireworks and actually enjoy watching them. They covered their ears sometimes but so did some of the other kids (and adults!) and they lasted through the entire thing before they'd had enough. It was a late night for them but they had fun. As for LB, he was ready for bed at his normal time so I put him to bed and once he was asleep, I set up the baby monitor so I could sit in the yard with the boys and watch the fireworks, while also keeping tabs on LB in case he woke up. I was afraid he'd wake up with all the noise, but he slept through the whole thing.

This morning, BH and CB were still talking about what a fun time they had last night watching fireworks :).