Bang!

Celebrating our nation's birthday can get quite noisy!  Ever wonder why we do fireworks on July the 4th?

I looked it up and one site said this:

"Because John Adams wanted us to. Before the Declaration of Independence was even signed, he envisioned fireworks as a part of the festivities. In a letter to Abigail Adams on July 3, 1776, he wrote that the occasion should be commemorated “with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” The first commemorative Independence Day fireworks were set off on July 4, 1777. The Pennsylvania Evening Post wrote that in Philadelphia, “The evening was closed with the ring of bells, and at night there was a grand exhibition of fireworks (which began and concluded with thirteen rockets) on the Commons, and the city was beautifully illuminated.” The paper noted that “Everything was conducted with the greatest order and decorum, and the face of joy and gladness was universal.” 

Claire was 

LOVING

it!

We normally don't spend $$ on fireworks.  To "some" people in this family, it is like taking a dollar bill (or many dollar bills!!) and lighting them on fire.    Ha!

But Jason loves fireworks and he spent some $$ on them and we added to it and we just had a blast!

This picture cracks me up.  Run for your life, Al!

Sparklers do light up better after dark, but Claire goes to bed before the sun does...

After dark, we set off some big, very noisy ones off our bridge!!  It was so fun!  Thanks for helping us celebrate, Jason and Mindy!  That was on the 2nd. 

 

On the 4th, we took the older two with us and went to Kidron Bethel for the fireworks there.  Bethel Kidron is the retirement village in North Newton where my parents used to live.

There was a drone flying around (you can barely see it in the middle between the smaller trees).  They plan to post the video on the Bethel Kidron facebook page sometime in the future.

They've been doing the fireworks there for 13 years.  I remember Mom telling me to come see them.  I didn't expect much, but I was surprised how good they were!  It is the maintenance department's gift to the village and they do great!  And now we go almost every year.

There were free watermelon and ice-cream and activities like a hula hoop contest, football throwing through toilet lids, cake walks, etc.  One little girl said "there's a lot of grandmas and grandpas here!"  

I enjoy running into my parent's friends, my dorm mother from Japan, and lots of church friends too.

While waiting for the fireworks to start, the girls had fun on my phone.