Sparklers

I am officially adding fireworks to my short list of things I can't/won't do alone with the kids. Too stressful. You know what else is stressful? Returning from a week long trip the evening before a holiday and then having your parents over for dinner. At least it was my parents and it was OK that the house was a mess and there was camping gear hanging all over the yard.

Our tradition on 4th of July is to go berry picking and then have dinner with people (whomever) and do fireworks at home. Last year, for the first time, we kept the kids up and went to see the big fireworks. I am trying to keep holiday traditions mostly the same whether Peter is home or not so it's not like "Sorry kids, Daddy's at work, holiday's cancelled." Instead we just go on without him. So we did go berry picking this year with my mom and although we are at the very very end of strawberry season and the picking was hard,  Miss E impressed me with her picking skills. This is going to be a good year of berry picking for her.  We ended up buying some berries from the farm and then all sat and had ice cream before heading home for rest time.

My parents came over for dinner and we lit off sparklers afterwards. Last year, Mr. T was TERRIFIED of the fireworks. He spent the entire time hiding in the house and we do not let off crazy fireworks in our yard. Mostly sparklers and a few fountain thingies. This year, when Miss E and I went to get the fireworks last night, I carefully selected a few that would not be loud/bangy or too crazy to have in addition to the sparklers. Still, Mr. T sat on the deck the entire time. He did one sparkler with me holding it with him and one with Nana holding it with him but that is it. He was outside though! And not freaking out! So, win.

Miss E on the other hand made short work of about 60 sparklers and would have done more if we had purchased them. She is all in on the fireworks.

The one thing we didn't do was stay up to go see the big show. This was less about Peter not being around as it was about just getting home from vacation and having some very tired kiddos. Next year.