Our 4th of July

This 4th of July we decided to do something a little different than we do every year. We usually go to Steven's grandparents house and do fireworks in front of their house, but it gets old quick. And most of the night is spent trying to find a spot where no one is smoking. So this year we invited my family to go up to California City to the park and see the firework show with us.

He was so excited to finally get his bucket-o-fun :)
I try to always make a special bucket for the kids for each holiday, I just love the way they turned out :) It was sweet Tessa went straight for the card and Dublin went for the sparklers ha ha.

It was so funny watching him try to get this thing going!

It was sweet he decided to read my card :)

Pretty cute huh??

He actually hated this thing on his face!

But not Tessa! She loved it!

They both looked so patriotic this year!

I love this picture of our whole family, we don't have very many good ones of us all together. But with two small kids I think that's normal...right??

Dublin has been spending WAY to much time with Papa, he always has that high look in pictures now :/ We'll work on that.

While everyone was off getting food Caitlin and I decided it was time to get some adorable pictures with miss Tess.

Her new thing is her tongue...she's always doing something with it. Ha ha it's beyond cute!

Moments after this picture was taken everyone got back with our food and we started eating when out of nowhere the sprinklers came on!! People were screaming and running trying to cover stuff up, it was terrible. Luckily we managed to get out okay, our blankets got a little wet but it was nice since it was hot out.

In our new drier area Grandma dresses Tessa up in stuff from her goodie pail. She did it again and got even cuter!

Dublin was in heaven! He had his absolute favorite people around and was able to run and play at the park with Ah-bee :)

Me and the little lady ha.

Of course it wouldn't be a fun filled night without some junk food and candy! And we went all out this year :)

Me and the hubby.

Ha ha I don't even know what to say...

Oh man even Tessa wanted some candy, I let her have a little lick and she went nuts!

Then everyone else went nuts when we busted out the glow sticks! It's amazing what kinda fun $1 will buy.

It was the McClure/Challman rave in Cal City ha. The best part was my mom got the most into it!! She even put her book down for it (whoa) and was going crazy! Definitely a good time.

Caitlin spinning Dublin around.

Tessa all decked out :) Because who doesn't have a 6 month old baby that raves?? Ha ha

Steven thought he was just too clever...

Then we all stopped because the show started! I was terrified that Tessa would freak out and I would have to spend the rest of the night in the car with her, but no she was terrific!!! She loved it! She never cried once, the whole time she looked on in amazement. I was so proud of her :)

And I think it goes without saying that Dublin LOVED the fireworks! He is still talking about them :)

After the grand finale we waited for the parking lot to clear out and visited the ducks in the pond and then lit our sparklers.

Once again everyone was going crazy! But it was a lot of fun!

And then the perfect end to the perfect night with family :)

Except for us...well we just weren't ready to go home and call it a night. I thought we'd walk in to Denny's and get horrible looks for having our kids out at 11:30 at night but the whole place was filled with families just like ours. I guess everyone that just finished with fireworks decided Denny's was the place to be ha ha. Dublin just had to try and win a stupid stuffed animal from the machine...he came close but I'm pretty sure the things are rigged not to let you win.

Tessa passed out from all the excitment!

Dublin not so much...he was so happy to be up with us and enjoying his special treat of no bed time and lots of junk food. I figured it was 4th of July and if we were at home all the local fireworks would keep him up anyways so why not have some fun.

Deing a big goofball!

Steven being an even bigger goofball! (He'd kill me if he knew I put this up here)

The boy was hungry! He almost ate a whole plate of pancakes! I guess all that fun made him work up a big appitite! This was an amazing year! I can't wait for next 4th of July!!