4th of July

I love this picture of them all looking up at the fireworks. I was really wishing I had my good camera with me. I wish I had of gotten a pic of the 3 kids, and the fireworks in the photo.

Noah....I can always depend on him to be excited about what we are doing!
Rachel....being herself! She gets so made at me when I try to take her picture!
I thought these 2 photos were cool.....Fireworks are hard to photograph with a little camera with such a slow shutter!
This one was the best one I could get of the actual fireworks. I put the camera down and enjoyed the show after this one.

I have several things to post about from last week, but I wanted to go ahead and post my 4th of July pics, and then I will just backtrack as I have time. We had a good day yesterday. Noah had his very first sleepover the night before. After that, Clay told the kids he would give them 25 cents for every toy they were willing to get rid of. Well, that put them in gear, and they parted with a ton of stuff! Noah made $37, Leah $26, and Rachel $11. So....we made a trip to Build a bear this morning. Clay said that was worth it to him for all the junk we got rid of! We get so tired of fighting with them to clean, and their stuffed animals are the only thing they play with anyway.

So, It took me quite a while to go through all that stuff and get the living room cleaned up. Then Clay grilled for us, it was yummy! So then, Noah called me outside....and it sounded like we were in the middle of a war zone with all the fire works going off out there! We could see them in the sky from all directions! You would never see anything like that in Warren! Last year we drove out to Lake Monticello to see them out there, but just about missed it...it took longer to leave from there than it did to see them. So, we were all getting really excited watching from the front and back yard, so we all piled up and drove a short distance to Lake Wilestein, to see a big fireworks display.

It was scheduled to start at 9:45, and the kids were all so tired from staying up late and getting up early from the sleepover. Rachel just went in her gown, and Leah whined a lot. We didn't have a watch out there, but I think it took a lot longer to start than 9:45, and the kiddos were restless, and had to go to the bathroom...there were bugs, and it was hot.....you get the picture. Then when it started, Rachel was so tired she barely watched, and Leah whined the whole time b/c it hurt her ears. But Noah, my child that lets himself enjoy everything we do...had a blast! And, I did too! It was the best fireworks I have ever had the chance to see in person. I was wishing I had brought a blanket to just lay in the grass to watch them. When we got home, Noah said, "Thank you mom and dad for taking us to see the fireworks, I had so much fun!" That makes it all worthwhile! Hope everyone had a great 4th!