Surprise! Wednesday and Happy Fourth of July!

It was sooo convenient for me that the Fourth of July fell on my Surprise! Wednesday (see my kid Summer Schedule here).  Although, because we had so many surprises today, I'm afraid that all future Surprise! Wednesdays won't live up to this one.  Hmmm, didn't think that one through, did I?

Anyway, of course I must have cute Fourth of July clothes for the kiddos.  Here's model Shelby:

Then, I decorated Noah (ever since my boys were babies, I've LOVED the backs of their necks, is that weird?):

And then we decorated our front yard using a Pinterest idea that actually worked! Surprise for me, too!  Yay!  FINALLY!  (My Pinterest fails are well-documented on Facebook and here on my blog.)  It's just a star stencil cut from cardboard, the grass wetted inside of it, and flour sprinkled on top.

Our original plan was to do all 50 stars, BUT we pooped out at 21 stars because it was so blasted hot.

Our dog Tiki licked up our practice star in the backyard.  Weird dog.

You can see the photographic evidence around her mouth.  Weird dog.

For lunch, the Rocket Dogs were a huge hit (thanks AGAIN, Pinterest!).  They didn't turn out quite as perfect as the Pinterest photos (what DOES?), but were still mostly recognizable as rockets, right?

The Rocket fruit and marshmallow kebabs were also a hit!  (To be fair, these would be hard to mess up, even for me.)

After lunch we enjoyed a very LOUD swim in our friend's pool (THANK YOU for sharing your pool with us while you're on vacation, awesome Newman family!).

For a while, I felt guilty that our kids made SO much noise and that Janell would probably have to profusely apologize to her neighbors when they returned home.  But THEN, I got a text from Janell talking about her In-N-Out Burger eating exploits.  Yeah, so now I don't feel so guilty, JUST INSANELY JEALOUS!!!

I didn't plan on swimming, but thought I could gracefully board a huge floating chair without getting wet (despite never having been graceful a minute in my life).  Yup, here's how that turned out.   Yay for Mark being at the ready with the camera INSTEAD OF HELPING ME.

Since we've rarely been around for the Fourth of July here in Syracuse, we were excited to see the fireworks from across the lake and got ourselves set up amidst the dirt and bugs.  Yeah, not my typical happy-place scene, and next year I'm 100% certain we'll do something else, but ANYWAY.

Shelby adorning herself in as many glow necklaces, bracelets and earrings as possible.  Of course.  That's how my girl rolls!

She also had fun WAITING FOREVER for the fireworks to start by pretending Daddy was her stallion and she was a knight.  That worked well until the glowstick being used as a whip did NOT work out well.  For Mark.

 

And then when waiting forever turned out EVEN LONGER, she started out with the tantrums.  You can see her about to blow in this photo.  I sincerely apologize to those sitting within 1/4 mile of us (all of whom I'm sure read this blog) who had to listen to her ear-splitting complaints.  Oh wait, water carries sound, right?  I need to apologize to everyone across the lake at the stadium, too, then.  UGH.

Meanwhile, Shelby's dorky brothers entertained themselves in other ways with the glowsticks:

At some point, party pooper NOAH changed out of his Fourth of July shirt.  Hmmmpff. 

I used a glowstick (NOT the one from Noah's nose) in a more clever manner, to make sure my Diet Coke did not go missing in the dark.  Because then there would have been ADULT tantruming to add to Shelby's.

The fireworks were farther away than I thought they'd be, but hey, it was something new and different.  A life experience (as I tell the kids when something did NOT go as planned or expected).  Independence Day is still one of my favorite holidays, we're incredibly blessed to be citizens of this country, and Happy Fourth of July to all!