Festivities of the Fourth

We spent most of the 4th of July relaxing and hanging out at home. Well at least the rest of the family did. I was busy preparing our picnic.

Last year, I biked to Shoreline Park with Akiko and Moses in the bike trailer. We had a picnic next to the lake and watched the fireworks show once it got dark. We sort of did that again.

A giant gaggle of geese on the lake.

The plan was that Joseph and Hannah would bike to the park, pulling the older kids along in the trailer and the bike seat while I braved traffic and drove with Simon in the van with all the food (and the kids' bikes). Well, weren't able find one of our allen wrenches and couldn't get the bike seat switched and then realized one of the wheels on our trailer is bad. All the kids ended up in the van with me. Asher was really, really upset about that. I better get the trailer wheel fixed and take him on a spin sometime soon.

Hannah was very extremely reluctant to bike all the way to the park. She doesn't ride bikes much and my behemoth was very intimidating to her. We convinced her that she would, in fact, live and promised her that she would have fun. She did very well and did end up enjoying her ride to the park.

Once we all got to the park and met up with each other, we sat and enjoyed our picnic and played till it got dark for the fireworks.

Yum!!

Simon was so serene and happy for the whole outing.

Asher hardly stayed in one place for long.

I'm not really the kind of person that gets very festive for holidays. I usually only do Halloween and Christmas, if anything. But I saw this really cute idea for layered cupcakes in one of the food blogs I follow and knew the kids would get a kick out of them. I was really craving cupcakes, so it was a win-win.

They turned out super cute.

Everyone enjoyed them.

Akiko admired her sprinkle job while she bit into her cupcake.

Yeah, Moses just stuffed a half of a cupcake in that mouth.

Once it got darker, we busted out the cheap glow sticks I got at the craft store and played with them. I'm so glad we had them and used them to decorate Asher. He was impossible to spot when he ran away after it got dark.

My husband is quite a handsome angel.

This neat picture was an accident and Akiko and I unsuccessfully tried to duplicate the effect.

These glow sticks were a brilliant idea.

Even I got to goof off!

My little angel.

Wowza!

A couple little girls that were sitting nearby started hovering close to us while we played with the glow sticks. We had plenty, so we gave them a few. They were thrilled. I'm so glad we could share with them.

Asher finally settled down on the blanket when the fireworks started. He was so excited by them. This is the first time he's ever seen them. Last year, he was sick and stayed home with Joseph. He would not have remembered anyway. He was so cute. He giggled and clapped and yelled, "Yay!" and "Wow!" for about half the show.

It was magical seeing the wondrous look on his face. I love moments like that.