July 4th evening - fireworks!

Robert spent the last few days building a battleground with the boys. In the back corner of our yard there used to be a shed, now it is just a square of dirt. Some people might look at that square and think garden or plant some grass or something along those lines. Robert sees it and thinks, “hmmm, this would be perfect for a battlefield.” There were bridges, towers, launchers, dirt bunkers, army guys, police guys, and a moat. Then today he added the finishing touches – the firepower!!! There were tanks and rockets and airplanes and smoke bombs and I’m sure there was a bunch of other stuff.

We had some friends over for a barbeque and once everyone was done eating he started lighting the fireworks off. It was spectacular! and deafening! and insane! and a tad bit scary. Some of the fireworks were not content to stay in the designated area. And some of them (black cats?) caused a whole lot of paper shrapnel to hit the observers. The boys loved it! I think the battleground was a huge hit. Natalia, on the other hand was scared to death by all the noise. A friend had borrowed our ear protectors for an earlier fireworks show and I thought it was a brilliant idea. With the ear protectors on Natalia was content to only hide her face in my shoulder as long as I was holding her tight. This was a huge improvement from the screaming in fear that was going on before I got the ear protectors on.
After the epic battle took place we headed over to the cul-de-sac and did some more fireworks and watched other neighbors doing theirs. It’s always fun to see your neighbors let loose with the fireworks and see the different kinds.