July 4th

Our July 4th celebrations are usually very low key and spent at home. We do go to my moms for lunch and swimming in the pool but as the night draws closer, we head home to our little abode on Cow Bird Lane.



Let me explain. For as long as Carter has been able to breathe, he has hated fireworks. Yes, I said hated... he hates fireworks.  He doesn't like the noise and to get him to hold a sparkler is like an act of congress. So believe it or not the fireworks we used this year are left over from last year (2009) because he completely lost it when we attempted to shoot any off. Us being the pack rats that we are, packed them away in the laundry room and waited to see if we could use them again this July. 

***Hmm... grass is a little thick there babe!****

***well now there's a redneck thought, use the boys wagon!***

So, as planned, we brought out all the fireworks. This year the little poppers that you throw down and they just make a tiny pop! were a huge hit with Carter. Tucker just tried to eat them, go figure. As always the cows were nosey and wanted to know what was going on so they stood by the fence waiting.  The boys, on the porch... waiting. You can tell by Carter's face he was very unsure and anxious. The first one flew into the air and luckily I opted to ignore the explosion to watch and capture with my camera the explosion that I expected to happen on the porch.

***Waiting, nervous, anxious, not real sure.  The kids or the dog!***

***OH NO! It's up, Carter sees it... Tucker has no clue, Cowboy is getting out of dodge!***

Sure enough... complete and total explosion/meltdown from Tucker. Poor kid you'd have thought a grenade had blown up beside him. I just had to laugh, I looked back at Travis as I scooped Tucker up to go inside and told him, "we have two, not just one!" After calming Tucker down and assuring Carter that Travis would not shoot off anymore, Carter ventured back outside.  Tucker however was out for the count. It was bedtime for him.

***"IRON MAN" not so iron anymore, huh?***

Carter finally mustered up enough courage to sit on the front porch and look back over our house at the glow the fireworks from the next town were putting off. There were the few sporadic booms! close to our house that made him tense up but he's better if they are much farther away. I looked up at Travis and said, "well, I think we can forget about watching a huge fireworks display for several years to come." He agreed. It's funny, but it's not funny.  I wish they enjoyed them more. Who knows, maybe next year because we still have plenty to store away!!!  We never dreamed that buying fireworks one year would last us for three years!!  Go figure.