The 4th!
Welp it was a pretty good day! My husband went and did a 50-mile bike ride and I stayed home with the boys (on the 3rd I did a duathlon and he stayed home with them, so it was a bit of a trade-off). Y woke up early and I rolled out of bed and grabbed him, then put him in our bed with me on my husband's side since he had already left. I got a little bit more sleep, but pretty soon Y was nudging me with his foot and putting his fingers in my nose and eyes. So I got up and held him...and then he ate breakfast...and then he wanted to be held. And held some more. I held him probably a good hour or hour and a half! It's nice sometimes to do that. :)
We went and played at the park, and after nap time all of us went to the pool. The little boys are so different at the pool than they used to be! C used to SCREAM the whole time unless we let him sit on the steps. He wouldn't even stand on the ground in the very shallow end. Now he jumps up and down in the water unassisted and thinks it's funny when his head goes under! :) Y kept going and splashing in the fountains and then running back to me and hugging my legs...back and forth, back and forth. :)
We bought some fireworks, admittedly more due to D's complaining than our actual desire to set them off. Last year we didn't do anything for the 4th...we had just gotten the kids and it was a little crazy and we were still adjusting. D started complaining a week ago about how we weren't going to do ANYTHING for the 4th again this year, and how his family always has a really big thing and they spend "$2,000" on fireworks, etc etc. Anyway, we decided we would do some. But we did NOT spend $2,000, needless to say. :) More like $30. And that will get you a decent amount of fireworks!
We bought those little popper things for the little boys, the ones in the little white bags that you throw down or stomp and they explode. Yeah, they loved them! C asked this morning if we could play with them again today. Kind of hard to explain to a 3-year-old that it was legal to play with them yesterday but today, not so much. :)
Anyway, we set off a few fireworks in the early evening so the little boys could see them, then put them to bed and watched Poltergeist with D while waiting for it to get dark. Then about 9:30 we headed out to set off the remainder of the fireworks.
D lit most of them which I think he enjoyed- I personally don't really care for setting them off, and my husband was kind enough to let D do most of the lighting which was nice of him!
A few minutes after we started, we got an unexpected visit - from our neighbor! He said something like "Good timing; we just put our kids to bed." They have 4-year-old twins. I was kind of like um, ok...? My husband said something to him, don't remember what it was. But I guess our neighbor really was mad, because a little bit later his wife came over and yelled "Thanks for waking our kids up!!!" and she was yelling and kind of just going off on us. It was really weird. TONS of people in our neighborhood were lighting off fireworks because the sun had just gone down, and it was still relatively early. Somehow our specific fireworks were the culprits though! She said something about how we were bad neighbors and we have little kids, too! Yup, we do...and they are in bed with the sound machine turned up and we're hoping for the best! It's kind of what you just have to on the 4th - people are going to do fireworks, you just have to deal with it as best you can. Then she yelled "Stay out of my life!" and stormed away. Kind of put a damper on the evening. It was really weird and I just wonder if she is under some serious stress at work or something? I just wonder if, once her kids are older, will she let them set off fireworks? Because we have a 12 year old that really wanted to do it, and it's only one night out of the entire year. Also it's legal to set them off until 11:59 p.m. and we were done before 10:30, so that's pretty reasonable! And trust me when I say if it would have been darker earlier, we would have done them then - I am too old to be staying up that late!!!
So anyway, that was that. It was a pretty fun day and I'm glad we could spend it pretty much all together.
We went and played at the park, and after nap time all of us went to the pool. The little boys are so different at the pool than they used to be! C used to SCREAM the whole time unless we let him sit on the steps. He wouldn't even stand on the ground in the very shallow end. Now he jumps up and down in the water unassisted and thinks it's funny when his head goes under! :) Y kept going and splashing in the fountains and then running back to me and hugging my legs...back and forth, back and forth. :)
We bought some fireworks, admittedly more due to D's complaining than our actual desire to set them off. Last year we didn't do anything for the 4th...we had just gotten the kids and it was a little crazy and we were still adjusting. D started complaining a week ago about how we weren't going to do ANYTHING for the 4th again this year, and how his family always has a really big thing and they spend "$2,000" on fireworks, etc etc. Anyway, we decided we would do some. But we did NOT spend $2,000, needless to say. :) More like $30. And that will get you a decent amount of fireworks!
We bought those little popper things for the little boys, the ones in the little white bags that you throw down or stomp and they explode. Yeah, they loved them! C asked this morning if we could play with them again today. Kind of hard to explain to a 3-year-old that it was legal to play with them yesterday but today, not so much. :)
Anyway, we set off a few fireworks in the early evening so the little boys could see them, then put them to bed and watched Poltergeist with D while waiting for it to get dark. Then about 9:30 we headed out to set off the remainder of the fireworks.
D lit most of them which I think he enjoyed- I personally don't really care for setting them off, and my husband was kind enough to let D do most of the lighting which was nice of him!
A few minutes after we started, we got an unexpected visit - from our neighbor! He said something like "Good timing; we just put our kids to bed." They have 4-year-old twins. I was kind of like um, ok...? My husband said something to him, don't remember what it was. But I guess our neighbor really was mad, because a little bit later his wife came over and yelled "Thanks for waking our kids up!!!" and she was yelling and kind of just going off on us. It was really weird. TONS of people in our neighborhood were lighting off fireworks because the sun had just gone down, and it was still relatively early. Somehow our specific fireworks were the culprits though! She said something about how we were bad neighbors and we have little kids, too! Yup, we do...and they are in bed with the sound machine turned up and we're hoping for the best! It's kind of what you just have to on the 4th - people are going to do fireworks, you just have to deal with it as best you can. Then she yelled "Stay out of my life!" and stormed away. Kind of put a damper on the evening. It was really weird and I just wonder if she is under some serious stress at work or something? I just wonder if, once her kids are older, will she let them set off fireworks? Because we have a 12 year old that really wanted to do it, and it's only one night out of the entire year. Also it's legal to set them off until 11:59 p.m. and we were done before 10:30, so that's pretty reasonable! And trust me when I say if it would have been darker earlier, we would have done them then - I am too old to be staying up that late!!!
So anyway, that was that. It was a pretty fun day and I'm glad we could spend it pretty much all together.
I believe what I said to him was, "Well, people were setting crap off until 12:30 last night so I don't feel bad setting stuff off at NINE THIRTY tonight."
ReplyDeleteUgh. Neighbors for sale!
wow- they were really that angry? Is she always that mean? It's sad how unkind neighbors can be...wow, I'm really shocked that she was like that- did you ask her her alternate location? We had some pretty annoying neighbors with the UBERloud firecrackers- some that even stirred my horrible sleeper. But I knew it would end! Also, did you have the really loud ones?
ReplyDeleteWhat did YOU say to her? Did D enjoy himself then?
I didn't say anything at all - I was totally dumbfounded. We have had some pretty minor trouble with them before but nothing like this.
ReplyDeleteI don't think our firecrackers were super loud - we got a standard $20 bundle of fireworks (which included mostly fountains that weren't super loud), sparklers, those little ones that spin around and change color...that was pretty much it.
I think D had a good time! DH showed him how to stick a black cat into the end of a metal can, put the can inside another can with water in it, and then light it and launch the can into the air. He thought that was pretty cool. :)