Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Fireworks... finally

Sunday night we went to see some (belated) 4th of July fireworks. This is a tradition for us--we always get a huge group together, lay out blankets early in the evening, and just hang out. This year, I think there were 30 or 40 of us sitting "together," though I didn't necessarily know everyone. We gave a blanket to Pastor and Dawn at church in the morning so they could save us a spot, and it's a good thing we did, because Ari slept until 6 that evening. She always naps longer on Sunday afternoons, and she missed her nap on Saturday, so I guess she needed to make up some sleep. By the time we all got ready and had dinner, we didn't get to the town green until almost 8. But that was fine--we knew we had a spot saved and the fireworks didn't start until about 9:45.

First order of business was to buy some glow necklaces, and Tony insisted on getting Ari that spinny thing too. As you can see, she loved it. (And look--I actually caught a genuine smile!)



Me and my BFFs Kerry and Dawn--not the greatest picture, but oh well.



Since there were tons of kids in our group, there was no shortage of toys lingering about--everything from bubble guns to various glowing things to this Elmo. I have no idea which toys belonged to which kids, but they all did a good job sharing, which is all that matters.



Ari ended up with 3 glow necklaces, and Tony showed her how to attach them all together to make one super-big one.



Ta da! (And yes, those are my silver toes.)



Another failed attempt at a mother-daughter picture--she was trying to escape and I was laughing.



I think she was attempting a smile here... or some kind of weird face. Hey, at least she's looking at the camera.



And finally, it was fireworks time. I love the look on her face in this shot.



It was way past Ari's bedtime by the time the fireworks started, but she did so well. At first, she was totally into them, giggling and saying, "Ooh, that's scary!" and having a grand time. But after about 10 minutes, she looked kind of bored--I'm not sure if she actually was bored, or just really tired, but it was probably a combination of both. I was just glad she wasn't scared--I mean, she never has been, but you never know.

I love this picture too--the way she's looking at him is so sweet.



At one point, she held her spinny thing up... I think she wanted to participate in lighting up the sky.



And of course, I should throw in a couple shots of the fireworks themselves. You have no idea how long it took me to get these--my timing was so badly off that I'd catch the firework either right before it exploded or right as it was fizzling out. It wasn't until toward the end that I finally captured a few.



In other Ari news, she has been doing great with potty-training. She's wearing big-girl underwear all day long, and though we put her in Easy-Ups at naptime and bedtime, she keeps those dry a lot of the time, too. Tony says she's even gotten up in the middle of the night a few times to go potty, which is really impressive to me. I was also impressed with how well she handled herself when we were on the town green this weekend, with only Porta-Potties to use, but she did a great job holding it and waiting patiently in line. Yes, folks, she had her first Porta-Potty experience this weekend (*gags*). Looks like the end of our diaper days is in sight... I can't wait.

2 comments:

Mary said...

Yeah, we figure we'll be opting out of fireworks for a few years. I didn't want to see how Matthew would act at 10 o'clock at night, and next year we'll have another younger one. I told Josh maybe we'll have to split up or something. Like, he takes Matthew to fireworks and I stay home with Jellybean. We did watch ones on TV though, so we didn't miss out entirely.

That's great news about the potty training! And icky news about the porta-potty. Yuck! Those things are so gross! Although, I was sorta impressed with the last one I was in. They had a hand sanitizer dispenser inside, so I used that to "clean" the seat. Guys have it so easy with public peeing. They get to stand and stay relatively germ free.

Moz + Pam said...

Ari's definitely more of a daredevil then you were at her age. When we took you to the fireworks at age 3 you covered your ears & were crying. Poor thing! Glad she enjoyed the fireworks! You did however enjoy an airshow @ 2 years 9 months. Missing Ari & looking forward to babysitting her on Friday night! We have restocked our candy corn supply! LOL! So we're prepared! ;)