The 4th

The 4th of July is our favorite holiday as a family, which means it's really the only holiday Don likes and gets excited for.  We have our 4th of July traditions down to a T.  I don't even have to make 'to do' lists....we are that good at it.
We started our day, as always, at the Mandan parade.  We parked in pretty much the same spot I always park in.  We set up our chairs on Main Street between 2nd and 3rd Ave NW on the south side of the street (as always), and we were joined by the Flemmer/Jorgenson/Helm families (as always).  New to our group this year was Jess and Huxley (hey...we aren't so stuck on tradition that we can't let others join us!).  We were missing the Miller side of the family this year, just like last year....something that was not unnoticed by the boys.
After the parade festivities, we gathered back at our house for swimming, food, and fireworks.  It was the first time the Flemmers joined us for post-parade festivities.  We had the boys' b-day cake a day late with our supper.   Our 4th tradition is to grill pizzas for supper.  We also typically have cocktail meatballs during fireworks, but I was too tired to make em this year, plus, we were all still stuffed from supper.  Jonathan may have cried a bit when I told him I wasn't making them.

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 Sno cone cupcakes.  Thanks Pinterest.

 The Loot.  So fun to live in a town where we can light off fireworks!

 Jonathan and Eric teaching the young Flemmer girls how to play with explosives

 We lit off the parachutes in the lot behind our house.  Our trees have gotten too big to do this in our backyard

 BFFs

 Dual Roman candles.

 Megan is comforting the girls.  Their tears are fake and dramatic

Huxley watched the fireworks from a distance.  He was a bit scared.  

 This is Huxley's first year seeing fireworks (2011).  He must feel safe at the stop of our steps

Megan keeping Huxley safe.  Love this pic.  I can still hear his "oooooohhhhhh" when I look at this picture.