4th of July- The Reenactment

Am I a major dork? Anyone who knows me is without a doubt shouting "Yes! Yes!" at their computer. Heck yeah I am. And proud of it. Being the dork that I am, I go this idea in my head to reenact Independence Day since I was the moron of the century and didn't put my memory card in my computer when I shot all those fabulous photos last Friday. After some discussion, Paul convinced me that the City of Vacaville would not be willing to shut down the streets and redo the fireworks show and concert we attended.  I still feel I could have been persuasive but I decided to let that dream die. I could, however, reenact some portions of our day. Put the kids in some red, white, and blue clothes. Hand them a couple flags. Do a few sparklers. So without further ado, I give you 4th of July 2008- Take Two.

On the actual 4th I had to give the kids a bath mid day for some reason that escapes my mind (Mari getting into poo again, Ben peeing all over himself, and an extremely messy food episode are all real possibilities). It is a tradition in our home post bath to do do naked laps around the house. We normally give them a quick dry with the towel and then shout "We've got a runner!" and let them lose. The kids love it. Ben runs around squealing and holding his wee and Mari joins in with jumps, jogs, and screams of her own. I can appreciate the joy they get from this. On one occasion I joined them in their fun (good luck getting that image out of your head) and it was quite liberating. Anyhoo- in spirit of the 4th I gave them flags to run with. This was easy enough to reenact.

 

 

 

 

Next we had to reenact the dogs in their patriotic bandanas and kids in wacky headbands. The first time around the kids cracked up when they saw the dogs dressed. This time they were a tad desensitized to the wackiness. We got some shots that were cute nonetheless.

 

 

From there Mari did some climbing on rocks and Ben worked on his flag waving technique. Check out the top of the first picture. You can see the flag he tossed in his stunt show performance.

 

 

Now on the actual 4th we had a tasty dinner of homemade turkey burgers. The recipe was from Oprah's Favorite Things but Mommy was not about to go there so soon after her puking episode the day before. Dinner was whatever we could scrounge out of the cupboards. So just imagine in your head the kids dining on turkey burgers, watermelon, and ranch style beans riiiiiiggggghhhhhhhhhttttttt NOW!

Originally after dinner we went to downtown Vacaville where they had the streets closed and music in the park. The kids had a blast running around the crowds and making Mommy and Daddy chase them for blocks. Then once it got dark the kids got their first taste of big fireworks. They did really well with the sound considering they had never experienced it before. Ben whimpered the first few seconds but then stared in awe for the entire show while in the comfort of Daddy's arms. Mari would hug me tight from time to time and also tried to walk away from the fireworks on a couple occasions but did seem to enjoy most of the show. As I stated earlier, Paul did not think the city would be up to reenacting this for us so I took matters into my own hands. Below is a picture of the kids looking at the fireworks I created using a late 1980's edition of Photoshop.

 

 

 

 I know. My skills are impressive.

 

Finally we tried our hands at some sparklers. We couldn't get the lighter to work (we are not smokers so are lighter skills are pathetic) so Paul pulled out the big guns and lit the firepit.

After a small debris fire under the table we got things under control  and started our sparkler spectacular. The kids got very excited watching Mommy and Daddy put on a show. Mari even held a sparkler or two with Mommy close by and ready to lunge if she disregarded our lecture of it being "HOT" (hot must be said in a whisper as it is in our house. Thank you Grandma).  Ben had no interest in holding one of our crazy firemaking sticks while it was lit but was happy to hold them after they had been safely doused in water.

 

After the last sparklers it was past our bedtimes and time to call it a day. It was a pretty good 6th of July if I do say so myself.