4th of July 2011

Gotta love a good 4th of July bash. Most of our usual Vegas crowd actually had plans for the holiday that were supposedly better than barbequeing at my house. I am still a little doubtful on that front... but we made due with the leftovers who had nowhere better to go.

:)

We started the evening with a little slip n' sliding action.

Our grass is non-existent at the moment (a fact that will be changed shortly, yippee!) so the kids also got a little 4th of July science experiment. What do water and dirt make?

Mud! Glorious, glorious mud.

And the outdoor shower proved its usefulness yet again.

Mud time was followed by dress up time. Poor Rhode was the only boy in attendance (one year olds don't really count yet). But if there is one thing this kid is good at, it's going with the flow.

I swear he does own boy dress up clothes.

Jon got called away on a work emergency and for a minute there, I thought the barbequeing would be left to me and the belly, which makes everything that much more difficult... and warm... and uncomfortable.

Thank you Dale for stepping up to the BBQ plate for me!

You want to know what is delicious? Grilled corn. Wow.

Add some hot dogs, sausages, all the fixins', side salads, fruit...

and, of course, dessert...

maybe a little excessive for the three families in attendance. But who ever complained about too much good food?

Not us!

Not only did Dale tackle the food cooking for the evening, he was also the supplier of our fireworks entertainment.

And, by the way, he totally rocked it.

Now there really is something to say about not living in the best part of town on a holiday like the 4th of July. Sure, there are houses with more cars parked in front of them than their driveway, curb and grassless lawn can hold. The tennis shoes that sporadically appear on the telephone poles aren't really the classiest accessory. And the frequent graffiti including the recent six foot male genitalia is not my favorite thing in the world. But man, can my block throw a fireworks show.

We were setting off some of the biggest fireworks I had ever seen set off in front of a house and they were nothing compared to the ones going off down the street and across the block at the exact same time. For most of our neighbors the sparks started flying Friday evening and continued every night until the big day.

It was incredible! We all pulled up a bit of sidewalk and enjoyed.

The kids spent most of their time going through hundreds of poppers...
and even more sparklers.
It was a party to remember. And to end the evening, our husbands proved to us once again that even though they are married, have jobs and children and all those other responsible sounding things, they are still 12 years old.

Luckily, no husbands were harmed in the making of this video.