"sparkles"

we had another great fireworks show on our street this year, but i have to say that it was a little less great than last year. seems that there weren't as many people out there this year, so there were less fireworks to see. nonetheless, we had a great time with our own stash of explosives. the evening began with some very tasty pork shoulder that we had at our friends', the wilkersons, house and wanted to try to make it ourselves. we used the outback steakhouse rub recipe and it was deeelicious! we also grilled some veggies and had some very tasty baked beans that i ate way too much of. the almond jello dessert put me over the top. it took me a couple of days to recover from such a big and tasty meal! once the sun went down, we lined up our camp chairs and started the show. emma and elise did NOT like the fireworks. they got really scared, in fact. so, i ended up taking elise inside and put her to bed. i was worried that she would be sad to be left out of everything, but she went down without a peep, even with all of the noise going on outside her window. i was shocked. emma wanted to stay up with us, but she wanted to sit inside of vicky's truck. towards the end of the night, i pulled out an old pair of "old school" headphones to cover her ears and she finally came out of the truck long enough to play with some "sparkles" (sparklers). we had a great time celebrating our country's birthday and being thankful for the freedom we are granted because of the many who served and continue to serve the united states of america.