Am I supposed to be excited?

Hey folks- happy Friday!  I hope that everyone enjoyed a holiday on a Wednesday although it was certainly strange for Pa to head back to work on Thursday morning.  I’m so glad he got a break though!

We had a nice day so I thought I would do a little recap of Lula’s first Fourth of July out of the womb!

I like this holiday.  I really like what it stands for.  However, I’m not a huge fan of getting wasted and lighting off fireworks for hours upon hours.  That said, I know other people do and I definitely respect free will.  I didn’t know what to expect since this year, we have a 9 month old in the house, but people have the right to have a good time so we were ready to roll with whatever happened.

A little background- our town has no regulations about fireworks around the fourth- or around New Year’s for that matter.  All of the lovely tents go up in town a few days prior to the actual holiday and then slowly, ’round the neighborhood, we start hearing the sounds of boys (mostly) throwing snaps onto the pavement, lighting off small firecrackers, etc.

Because the holiday was on a weekday, we assumed most people would live it up the night of the 3rd, and that the 4th would be a little quieter.  (That’s what happened last year so why wouldn’t I plan on it being the same this year?)

Well…there was a party on the third- specifically at our next-door neighbor’s house.  Pa and I had already prepared ourselves and we decided that if Lula woke up, we’d turn on a movie in the living room and I’d just nurse her and let her sleep on me until the sights and sounds were over.  The funny thing was…we never heard a peep from her.  Not ONE SINGLE peep!  She might have been in her nursery enjoying the show for all we know and that is just fine with me.  More on the neighbor’s shindig later.

The noise died down around 11 and we were up at 5:30 to get ready for a family run!  Someone was rarin’ to go!We were out the door by 6:30 and it was so quiet!  Hooray for an outdoor run during the week!  I love running on holidays because there is virtually no traffic.  Dogs?  Yes.  Traffic?  No.We got in six miles (whoohoo) and I inadvertently stepped on a little firecracker (it went off) and experienced some heart palpitations for a few moments.

Lula snoozed for twenty minutes or so on the run and I figured her morning nap might be a little later than normal.  She ended up being SUPER cranky upon our arrival home, so I put her down earlier than usual and she still slept almost two and a half hours.  That is fine with me!

We had a fairly low-key day around here- Pa got the chance to work in the garage and put his drill press together so I was glad about that.

It was over 100 degrees, again, so in the afternoon, we all hopped into Lula’s swimming pool which was so relaxing and refreshing!

One of my favorite childhood memories was swimming at the pool or beach and then coming home in the early evening, changing into pajamas, and savoring the feeling of being happily exhausted.  I don’t think the kiddie pool exhausts me by any means, but I still get some of that nostalgia when I’m all dried off, in comfy clothes, and getting Miss Lula ready for bed.

Once Lula was down for the night, Pa and I grilled burgers and were hanging out on our deck when the aforementioned neighbor came up our deck steps and mentioned that one of his fireworks came awfully close to setting our house ablaze (I’m being tongue-in-cheek here) the night before- did I mention we are in near drought-like conditions around this part of the country?

Apparently one of the fireworks they lit didn’t go up into the air, but instead landed under one of our holly bushes.  It was thanks to the keen observational skills of a two-year-old girl that anyone noticed that there was a small fire nearby. Fortunately, the neighbor’s hose was hooked up just a few feet away so the inferno was out in no time flat.

And the aftermath…Poor bush…Some of the berries affected by the fire…And from a distance, it still looks pretty good!No, we don’t keep our holly bushes manicured.  We like the wild look better.

The culprit?Well, let’s just say we have our suspicions…

Anyway, Pa and I were wrong when we thought the revelers were done…Wednesday night was pretty rockin’ around here until after midnight!  Again, not a big deal to me but I can say that because Lula didn’t wake up once- for the second night in a row!  What a rock star!

I tried to not be obvious but I wanted to take a photo of the aftermath down the street…This is pretty mild compared to what we’ve seen in other years and with not much rain in the forecast, I am certain firework remnants will linger for awhile.

All in all, it was a fun, relaxing, family-oriented day.

Have a wonderful weekend!