Fourth of July!

It's the fourth of July!!!

Katrina, Beth, and i spent quite a long time this morning painting our toenails and then, on a whim, our fingernails. Katrina has some really cute monster fake nails that she got for her birthday, and she wanted to use those, so we carefully put them on. And then they almost immediately fell off. So we tried to kind of glue them to her fingernails with fingernail polish, but that lasted only slightly longer. And so in the end, she just gave up on those and we used the fancy transfer thingies that are really cute. Except then Beth and i were all, "I want to do that on one of my nails, for a fun thing!" So we did. And then we had to paint the rest of our nails so it didn't look weird. But they were all cute in the end!

Katrina found an idea in her American Girl Magazine to cover an ice cream cone with Magic Shell, and then add sprinkles before it hardened, and she really wanted to try it out. And since it's a holiday, it was the perfect time! We adults were all full of delicious soup and yummy fancy raspberry drinks, but the kids have bottomless stomachs, so they eagerly piled on as much as they could.

We went to our usual spot for the fireworks. It's just this little area between a path and some houses, right by some telephone wires. And i think most people don't sit there because of the wires, but we love it. It's never very crowded, it's practically right under the fireworks, so they're HUGE, and after the first couple of fireworks, none of us even notice the wires anymore.

This year our friends Linda and Andrew, who usually go with us, were in Germany, but Beth and Stephanie (and Stephanie's mom and god-daughter) were there. There were glow sticks and sparklers and popcorn and weird candies that Stephanie brought, and the kids were all very spoiled. There was the usual firefly catching and merriment before-hand. And then Juanito, Beth, and i started playing with long-exposures and glow sticks, and that lasted until suddenly the fireworks started.

And they were amazing. We couldn't decide if they were actually bigger than Grand Rapids or just different or if it was just our location, but while the Grand Rapids fireworks had some really cool things like waterfalls spilling from the bridge and fancy things you could only see close-up, the Grandville fireworks were just huge and seemed to fill the sky and then rain right down on us. There were several that made Beth and me actually gasp in surprise and delight, and Juanito kept a running commentary (things like, "That was just like bacon") that amused us greatly. There was the most perfect smiley face firework i've ever seen, and some incredibly bright flashing, loud banging ones, and lots of glittery, sparkly, amazing ones. It was fantastic. Everything fireworks should be.

Afterwards, we just took our time and took a few pictures and played with sparklers and long exposures some more. We figured, "Well, we're going to be in traffic anyhow! We might as well spend the time having fun rather than sitting in a car!"

All in all, it was a great day!