Fireworks

Overall, we had a pretty low-key fourth.  I got to teach at a friend's ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship - like Sunday School) at the church that hosts my seminary.  I really enjoyed doing that and I got a lot of good feedback.  That took up the morning.

I made some burgers to grill.  Noah took one look at the plate of raw burgers and said, "I don't like that."  Then I told him that they would become cheeseburgers and he threw both hands in the air and said, "Yay!"  Lily and Noah certainly make the whole Mars/Venus thing come into focus.  Noah is so much easier to please than she is.  Frankly, I'm concluding that boys are just simpler.  Give Noah the right food or offer to play a game and he's a happy little tike.

After dinner I took Lily out for Goodberry's and fireworks.  We got to the park a little after 7:00.  We played a couple of games of backgammon, though Lily's attention started to wander a bit during the second game.  She was upset that we didn't bring any sparklers or glowing things.  The official scorer can chalk that one up as E-Daddy, for those of you scoring at home.

The fireworks started around 9:10 and lasted a good 20 minutes.  Lily really enjoyed the show.  It was tempting to be one of the families that started walking away before the show was over, but I didn't want to do that.  We waited for fireworks and we were going to see the whole show, by golly.  It took a good 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot once we got into our car.  Everyone got to bed around 11:00.  It really doesn't seem like a very good use of time in that the whole thing was about 4 1/2 hours for 20 minutes of action (kind of like going to a football or baseball game), but it was completely worth it to Lily.  Therefore, it was worth it to me.

I think next year it would be fun to get another family or two to go early and have a picnic.  I would also plan on hanging out for a good hour after the show.  It takes at least that long for the traffic to dissipate.