"God Bless America"

We had a great 4th of July this year! We went over to a friends for a cookout - the kids played on the slip-slide and swam and the adults hung out. Then we went home to light some fireworks. We bought a small combo box and some sparklers that would have lasted for about 20 minutes of fun, but while we were out there our (what was previously thought was our grouchy old neighbor) came out and started setting some off for Blake and Ashlyn. After an hour and 45 minutes of shooting off fireworks, the kids were begging to go to bed and the (now really nice old man) had gone in for the night. When we were cleaning up he came back out and gave us one of the huge $100 boxes that he had in his closet from last year, not even opened, for the kids. Since we'd been out there already for almost 2 hours, we stored them for later - maybe next year, but probably for New Year's Eve.Ashlyn had a blast this year with the sparklers and wasn't even scared of them. (Notice she instisted on wearing her new dress-up shoes out for the festivities!)
After Ashlyn showed Blake there was nothing to be afraid of, he finally decided to give it a try.
We decided not to deal with the crowds and traffic for the city's firework show this year. However, our neighbors on the next street over put on just as good of a show that we watched from our driveway - they obviously bought their fireworks in Florida, because they were the huge ones that go up in the air just like the city does. If you look closely at the picture there's a two-story house and some trees that the fireworks are above in the air!