Food, Fireworks and Fun! Oh my!

So HAPPY (late) FOURTH of JULY to all my American readers! Did you have fun for the holiday weekend? I hope so because I totally did. We did some cooking and went to a cookout with family and friends. We ate way way too much food and still pigged out on dessert. I need to do like 1,000 crunches and run like 18 gazillion miles to work it all off now. We could have fed an army with all the food. No one was allowed to leave unless they took leftovers. That should be a rule at all cook outs. Everyone has to hand in their keys when they show up and won’t get them back unless they walk out with at least one leftover! Sort of a “friends don’t let friends leave without food” kind of program.

After lots of chatting and making the rounds with the guests it thinned out some and we had a fire in the yard. No we didn’t burn down any trees because we’re responsible and only we can stop forest fires. Actually, the yard has a fireplace so it was all safe, mostly. The huge pile of wood, flying burning debris and paint thinner as a fire starter wasn’t safety inspired but we did it responsibly. Then we went to watch fireworks on the water which was pretty awesome since we could literally see about 7 or 8 different shows (it’s hard to keep track). I think I got whiplash and vertigo from turning my head in so many different directions to see them all. It’s like 4 shows in one direction isn’t enough; no I want to see them all! It’s the pyro in me (spell check says ‘pyro’ isn’t a word and it makes me want to torch it). I can’t resist the shooting fire in the sky!

It’s amazing how many parents hand their young children fireballs on a stick to play with. I guess all parenting rules go out the window when it’s our nation’s birthday. It’s crazy that all week we hear how shitty the economy is, then 4th of July shows up and everyone buys boxes and boxes of fireworks. Recession, what recession? I guess people have to have fun somehow. We even got to play with some although we didn’t buy them. Someone else did and we kind of all just shot them off. Thankfully we didn’t kill each other or anyone else so it was a success! The holiday wasn’t even over yet and everyone was talking about what kind they wanted to buy for next year – in a state where they’re illegal to sell and use. Go figure. The police kind of ignore them for this weekend though because it would be insane to try to enforce the law when everyone and their grandmother are shooting them off. It would be a losing battle really.

The only part that sucked was I went to war with mosquitoes and I freaking lost! I put on bug spray just like everyone else. I put it everywhere and applied it at the same exact time as the rest of the group. Well, guess what?! I’m the only one who was bit! Not a single other person walked away with any bug bites. Me? I HAVE SEVEN! Five of them are all around one ankle/shin and I know I made sure to spray that area. They itch like hell and I even put itch cream on them to no avail. I don’t know how I managed it. I swear, only I could be outside with a bunch of other people with bug spray on and end up the only one with mosquito bites. My husband just shrugged and said, “I guess you smell good - to mosquitoes.” I was like, “uh, thanks. I guess.” At least I didn’t get sunburned though so I won one of the battles.


I guess you can’t have it all, but with this weekend I was pretty damn close! Family, food, fireworks and fun all make for a pretty great day.