Recap: lots 'o fireworks, food, family, fun, and more food

It was a really great 4th of July. Maybe the best one yet—it even rivaled those ones we used to have when I was a kid, and that's saying a lot. My dad would set off a whole mess of completely illegal fireworks in the driveway. It was awesome. For some reason I really remember the Screaming Pete towers of fire, those cardboard whirly sparking things we'd nail to a pine tree, and the weird black pellets that would ooze into short fat sooty snakes when you lit them. One year he even made a homemade acetylene bomb with a balloon that scared the buhjeezus out of us. Ah, good times. Anyhow, I think this year was so great because the girls were so into it. The weekend was a three-year-old's dream from start to finish. On Friday, the whole family and some of the girls' BFFs from the early Gymboree days went to our huge neighborhood Independence Day party. We had burgers and popcorn, margaritas and beer, jumpy houses, face painting, balloon animals, an everyone-wins-a-prize tennis game, and then, at nightfall, camped out on the grass and watched the fireworks show. I'd guess Ro and Ree would have a hard time picking a fave between running on the grass with their friends, seeing the fireworks (during one huge explosion Ro said "Ooooo, dat one red, white, and blue, just yike da Texas flag!"), or staying up past MY bedtime. Saturday, we went to the local 4th of July parade and watched my folks and all of their friends drive around in decorated antique cars. Everyone knows the girls, so every single Ford that went by threw copious amounts of candy to them (oh so much candy!). We were dying laughing. The girls were in heaven scurrying after all that sugary stuff, and they ended up coming home with an insane three pounds each. (I actually weighed those bulging little purses. Then I took a picture of them.) My folks pulled over to the curb near the end of the parade and Ro and Ree climbed into their 1919 Ford Runabout and got to ride and wave. When we caught back up to them, the girls kept yelling "Mama, we was IN a parade!!" What a thrill. My dad had an awfully good idea for next year, by the way. He said we should let the girls collect candy for the first half of the parade, and then, when the parade cars double back, put them in the car and have them toss out all the candy for the rest of the parade. Brilliance! Sunday we went over to the cousins' house and let all the kiddos run around and just have fun. The rest of the pics are here. Nothing special, just a few quick snapshots taken with the purse camera, but enough to capture a really great holiday that we had with the girls. It'll be hard to top it next year. Hey I know, we'll just have my dad make some of those acetylene balloon bombs—it will be a 4th to remember for sure!