Fourth of July (almost a month late)

We are fortunate to live in a neighborhood with lots of families with young kids. As seen in previous posts, our children really enjoy playing with our neighbors next door to us and across the street.  Fourth of July this year was spent with our next door neighbors, "The Bushwacks."

The weather was unseasonably cool for Missouri.  We were blessed with temperatures in the 80's and clear skies that day.  Matthew is at the age where he thinks fireworks are the most amazing thing ever.  He had his own countdown going until the day we could do fireworks.  We live next to a residential area who is legally allowed to shoot off larger fireworks, so we are always guaranteed a decent display.

Our evening started with dinner at The Bushwacks.  Natalie had the chance to eat corn on the cob for the first time and I can honestly say I may now be a fan of pork steaks thanks to the fabulous ones we ate that night!

After dinner we had to wait for the sun to at least start to set before we lit up any of our holiday goodies.  Snappers kept the kids entertained for quite some time and I am thankful Mr. Sharktank purchased all the boxes he did.  I forgot how long it takes for it to get dark in the Summer!

Finally it got dark enough to bust out the sparklers, ladybugs, bottle rockets, snakes, and whatever else the Dads purchased.  Natalie was not into the lights and noise of the Fourth of July the previous year, so we were not sure how she would react this year.  The snappers were a success with her, so she was very ready to try a sparkler.  She loves our neighbors, so her only request was that she do her first one with Mr. Kirt.  

Matthew was ready to do the sparklers days before the holiday, so he jumped right in and "wrote in the air" right away!

I am thankful for a place to document all of these memories.  The images are still fresh in our minds today, but I know years from now The Sharktank family will love having a place to go back and look at all of the fun times we had!