Flashback to the Fourth

This year we were tempted to do things the exact same way as years past for the Fourth of July. You know, pancake breakfast at church, parade in Barcroft, fingers crossed for good naps in order to stay up until dusk for driveway fireworks. And honestly, we mostly did. Except the threat of rain put a little hiccup in the plans.

Rather than waiting until Monday night to set off the fireworks, risking rain and resulting in me dealing with sleep deprived toddlers all alone on the fifth, we pushed the party up to the night before. As you can imagine, none of my boys were disappointed by one less day of anticipation. They'd already been setting off the pop-its and snakes (using a magnifying glass!) for days.

We invited the neighbors - including the ones who had just moved and we will miss terribly during our after school sidewalk scooter races - to fill the yard and benefit from J-Man's pyrotechnic love affair.

The show was a success, with two finales no less, and ended with pitch black bike riding and enjoying summer weather that was days away from shifting into a July inferno.  And when the boys still woke up at normal time the next morning, J-Man and I worked together to head to church for pancakes and overcrowding and small talk.

From there we changed things up and headed out to see Great Grandma M. The boys played well as we talked about the usual topics: Redskins, American public schools and education trends, family business, and the status of the neighborhood. PDG refused to take a picture, but we at least snagged one.

After all the excitement we snuggled down early as the rest of the east coast began their own celebrations. And we had zero regrets.