Well, we had a wonderful 4th of July holiday. The boys and I spent it with friends. We were without Daddy this year so I decided to ditch the crowds and all the madness that goes along with them. Instead we had a laid back evening with our neighborly friends, which are like family to us. Neighbors Umer & Saira hosted at their house, and I trucked all my goodies and grillings in a wagon and strolled down the street to their place. The kids swam in the pool and were in and out all night and playing with all their friends.

I bought these little kiddie firecrackers that turned out to be pretty cheesy to say the least. You just pulled the string on these bottles and out popped confetti. They lasted maybe 3 minutes with all the kids. I decided to play a clean-up game after that and every time someone picked up a piece of confetti, you earned a point and a cookie at the end. It was a sweet deal for all... and a quick way to clean up the mess. We saw fireworks from a distance in the heart of our cul-de-sac but the attention span just wasn't there for very long. Maybe we weren't close enough? All the kiddos decided that watching Spiderman III was more fun... so inside they went. We got to bed late with our hair and skin smelling like chlorine, frosting on our face, and dirt on our feet... but it was all in the name of FUN!