Fireworks Fail 2013

Well fireworks didn't turn out to be as much of a hit as I had hoped this year.  I mentioned in my last post that we had plans to go to a show as a family last Wednesday.  That morning the tyrant tater was diagnosed with a double ear infection that almost put the kibosh on our plans, but Meemaw volunteered to watch him so we could still go.  Yay for Meemaws!  They sort of rock.   

Poor TT was so not in a firecracker mood.  :(

The rest of us loaded up and headed to Beverly.  Hills that is.  Not really.  We headed to the Loch Lomond dam in Bella Vista.  I'm just corny and watched a few too many Beverly Hillbillies episodes when I was a little.  That was back in the eighties before folks knew it wasn't good for kids to just sit around and watch TV all day.  The taters have been watching Lion King on repeat lately and just now while typing the words when I was little I heard Pumba singing when I was a young warthog in my head.  Mom brain please go away.  You are so embarrassing.  Anyway, we met up with my parents and my brother before the show.  We had lots of snacks, cousins to play with, and plenty of sparklers.  The first pic below is way before the show, but M already has his ear muffs on.  I forgot to get the actual gun range ear muffs from the house, so I just gave him the headphones from the dvd in the Mothership.  I was banking on placebo effect here but it didn't really work like I wanted it to.       



Everything went swimmingly for awhile...and then the fireworks show started.  Almost immediately the exorcism of Ellie Rose occurred.  Her screams could be heard above all the explosions.  Around this same time M realized he wasn't  really wearing real noise blocking ear muffs and basically said the jig is up I'll be in the car.  So him and E both sat in the car with Nanny for the entire show.  I was scared to death of fireworks when I was little and to be completely honest I'm still not much of a fan today.  I just don't like the loud booms and the smoky smell makes me sneeze.  Waa waa waa.  Point is, I get where the taters are coming from.  Fireworks just aren't all they're cracked up to be.  :).  B on the other hand loves fireworks and doesn't understand why everyone else doesn't love them too.

I don't wanna hear no hatin' on fireworks.

Just kidding.  He could take em or leave em.  I took the above pic while he was pretending to act cranky and telling me to quit taking photos of the fireworks show.  I put the camera down, but now regret that I don't have any pretty firework pics to post. Boo. 

 

B worked the next night which was actually the July 4th.  E was with Meemaw and M was with Nanny.  Have I mentioned how much help I get with the taters?  It is a such a huge blessing to have grandparents close by.  There were a lot of fireworks being shot off in our hood that evening and they were making TT (and maybe me) a little jiggy.  I loaded him and the dog up and drove around for awhile in an attempt to get away from all the noise.

This seemed like a good plan, but it ended being a little hard to drive around because people were shooting fireworks all over the place.  Like on every street in town.  At one point I thought someone shot one at/toward the Mothership, so I decided we should take shelter at the nearest Sonic for awhile.  Half price shakes in no way influenced my decision.  ;)  By the time we got home things had settled down and TT was able to hit the hay (trying to stick with my BHB theme here folks).  My mom and sister had taken M to fireworks down town that evening and sent me the below picture. 

My sister said she couldn't get him out of the car long enough to get a better one.  Still being out of the car at all is a marked improvement over past years.  At this point, my goal is for each of the taters to be able to sit outside and watch fireworks with no ear muffs/plugs and no crying by the age of eighteen.  I like to set realistic goals.  I think we can get there.   :)

 

That pretty much sums up, in way too many words, how we spent our July 4th.  Hope you and yours had a happy 4th celebrating our great nation!

 

Talk to ya soon,

Angie