Flags and Fun on the Fourth

Here are a few pictures before the kids went down for naps (preparing them for a late night of festivities!)

We all slept in yesterday morning. Julia and Austin were the first ones up and made these flags together.

Around 4:30 we headed to our friends' house for a BBQ. We brought Chinese Cabbage Salad, red potato salad from Vons' deli (we'd walked to Vons and the gas station to fill up the jogger stroller tires with air that morning), and cupcakes with white frosting. Half had red sugar sprinkles, half had blue. After eating, the whole group (4 families) headed over to one of the other family's house. They live in the same neighborhood. They had planned a scavenger hunt for the kids. Julia especially loved that! Some of the things they had to find: weeds that look like wheat, a silly straw, orange and yellow flowers, 5 blades of grass, party poppers, a bouncy ball, an Ollallieberry (from their backyard), etc. Lauren is sitting in front of the sleeping bags and blankets they set up for the kids to snuggle in for the fireworks later.

Austin and Julia having a great time with fireworks! She said she was a fairy.

Until......Austin suddenly was crying and crying and jumping around, holding his foot. A spark from a sparkler had fallen off onto his skin. It got him good, as it formed a blister that had already popped by the time we saw the injury. Our friend went home and got Austin this HotWheels bandage.

So, onto other things. Austin refused to do any more sparklers the rest of the night. He was fascinated by these fireworks snakes, however. Julia is eating ice cream in this picture. One family made 3 kinds of ice cream: vanilla, vanilla with Skor bars, and chocolate with Oreos. I tried the last two flavors and they were yummy!

Austin had to be right there with the older boys! They were so funny, stacking 3 or 4 or 5 snake "pellets" on top of each other, then lighting each one, making a really, really long or fat snake!

Lauren was concerned about Austin crying after his burn, but she still wanted to do sparklers. Julia did a TON of them.

Our friend set up his ladder with a big board on top of it. This was the fireworks platform. Their neighbor across the street had bought a $500 box of fireworks and set them off with all of ours. Each family was to bring some fireworks, along with food, to the party. We had quite the show! Everyone smelled like smoke afterwards. Back at home, Brian gave the kids baths while I cleaned up the kitchen (had run out of time before the party!).