The "Lego" Fireworks are the Best

I had big plans--for us anyway--for the Fourth. We were going to do our normal routine in the morning, followed up with a family trip to the pool and then off to Herndon for the fireworks, complete with a picnic I had planned (BBQ sandwiches, salad, hotdogs, hummus, etc.) followed by the full display of professional fireworks. Not sure where the day went wrong, but it was somewhere between me yelling at my husband for letting my son burn himself on a smoke bomb and being annoyed at the contractor who put the wrong caulking in the bathtub.

Our afternoon pool trip was cut short by thunder and rain. Our picnic was also rained out (instead we picnicked on the floor in the living room which was fine with the kids). I had then lost my spirit for the Herndon fireworks show since at 6 p.m. it was still raining and we had already eaten. So we opted for family fun and our own display of fireworks in front of the house.

I will have to preface this post with a brief digression on how much I HATE fireworks. Oh yes, it's true. From as early as five I can actually remember being terrified of fireworks in every possible way. I would cry and hide and pretend to be cool about it. To this day, I still hate them. Every year, my husband loads up on sparklers and other silly firecrackers to wow the kids and satisfy his inner pyromaniac self. This year, my kids were ready for the real thing. They couldn't wait. As soon as it was a little dark, we were outside with our load o' explosives. Then out came our neighbor with the ones he picked up in Pennsylvania--the illegal ones, he told us. Alex must have picked up on the new word "illegal" and as we're talking about the fireworks, he asks the neighbors when we would get to see the "Lego fireworks." We couldn't figure out what that meant, until he told us it was the ones Mr. D picked up in Pennsylvania. Oh...."lego" = "illegal." Excellent.

And yes, they were quite illegal. We had our own private fireworks display and my kids oooed and ahhhhed about the fact that they finally got to see the fireworks in the sky. Nevermind the fact that we were all standing under umbrellas to view them. Yes, it continued raining into the evening. Both kids stayed up until 10 p.m. and will likely be up at 6 a.m.