
Hope all had a happy 4th! We did. Busy but good. We spent most of the weekend at my dad's which meant swimming, homemade ice cream, and dirt pudding. My sisters were there along with AJ and Nate. My dad put some crazy rule into effect that we couldn't light any fireworks which left the ground. WHAT? What is the point if we aren't trying to blow something up or catch one of the neighbor's houses on fire? Hmpf!
Just because one year we had a misfire and almost took out the neighbors to the west of my dad doesn't mean we are irresponsible with the explosives! Mike did that and he wasn't going to be there so we shouldn't be punished for his mistake! That misfire was the best part of the night! Seeing Dad pop his head up over the fence and yell, "Everybody all right over there?" was great! We screamed and laughed and almost fell out of our chairs. A few minutes later we had him running to the neighbors to the east to make sure we hadn't caught their house on fire. Turns out they were sitting outside watching our show. Can't light any fireworks that leave the ground! Whoever heard of such a crazy rule?
Think we obeyed? Well, sort of. Sherri lit one that she "thought" was a fountain...turns out if was a mortar with a parachute in it. Jayke loved it! It landed in the pool. Dirty looks were given. Snickers and giggling ensued. I think we had just as much fun complaining about not being allowed to light "the big ones" as we would have lighting them. I shocked we didn't get kicked out. We did actually get ditched for the "Racino". Dad thought he was going to win a BMW so my sisters, mom, and dad headed to the new casino/horse track. Just up and left AJ, Jayke, and me sitting there alone. We weren't feeling the love at all!
Angi called and saved me though. Jayke and I made a mad dash back to Muncie to hook up with Angi, her family and about 18 other people. We went and watched the fireworks at the fairgrounds then went and lit our own after the big ones were over AND we were allowed to light ones THAT LEFT THE GROUND!
Here are some pictures from the night. There were so many people and so much going on it was hard to get good pictures. When there are 8 kids running around with sparklers it is hard to focus on taking pictures!




We did break Dad's rule to launch one of these...

Chinese sky lanterns. They are my new favorite 4th of July thing. It's a big paper lantern with a candle in it that you light and the hot air makes it float off into the sky. We watched it go forever. We could barely see it when it finally flickered out far far away. Even dad got up and left the race he was watching to see the lantern off. We have another one to light still but Jayke didn't want it to fly away. I may go see if I can find another one to do here at our house for Grammy to see.
All in all...stupid rules aside...it was a good 4th. There was shopping, eating, drinking, laughing, and the lighting of explosives...what more could you ask for?