4th of July..To Celebrate or Not

The Fourth of July snuck up on me this year because it occurred way too close to Kaitlyn's birth. So, I'd pretty much decided that we would just do the bare minimum. Since we also have the 24th to shoot off fireworks in Utah and my kids are usually questionable about them anyway, I wasn't feeling too terribly guilty. However, last year we went to Provo's Freedom Festival with some friends and they persisted until they talked us into going again this year.
So, on Saturday, we broke out our Fourth of July outfits and away we went. (Although we did skip the early morning hot air balloon launch!)
We walked around and looked at the various booths that they had.
We even found some toy chicks that reminded the girls of Chirpy and Smokey.
We found a baseball throw that I got dared into doing after our young friend. I managed to have the fastest throw of the day for a woman, even though I was only 2 weeks out from having a baby!
We watched our favorite reptile show!
We had snow cones to cool us off.
We played in the inflatable jump house.
We found the arts and crafts tent, which was heaven for Emily and Addy!
Cole even found a craft or two that he thought was fun!
Then, we finished the day by getting our nails and faces painted!
Addy still loves Nemo (from our trip to Disneyland)!
Emily got a beautiful butterfly.
And Cole did the boy thing and got a creepy spider!
Kaitlyn celebrated the day just like this! (But she did look cute in her festive outfit, even if it was a little big!)
Like I said, I was prepared to just let the Fourth slip by and save our celebration for the 24th. However, when we woke up on the 4th of July, the first thing Cole asked me was when we were going to the fireworks tent. Well, being my father's daughter, I couldn't very well ignore that request, so we left Kaitlyn with her Dad and away we went.
We mostly loaded up on smoke bombs
And tanks that entertained the whole neighborhood!
My son and daughter are so grateful that they were taught how to have tank wars!
Addy was especially into the smoke bombs. (She even figured out really quickly how to light them and then throw them. Probably not 2 year old approved, but thankfully no one got burned!)
Everyone is posing with a smoke bomb!
Then, that night, we got together with some neighbors and shot off fountains and a few aerials (now that they are legal in Utah).
Cole and his friend had a great time picking out what was going to be shot off next.
Kaitlyn greatly enjoyed the show as you can tell!
Finally, we broke out the ever popular sparklers!
A great way to end the holiday! I'm grateful we didn't just let it pass us by!