4th of July! Snakes, Chickens & Sparklers.

In June Ainsley had a sleep study and a swallow study.  I picked up a summer bug (my theory from lack of sleep at the SS) and must have passed it on to Ainsley (as often happens). We've both been sick for awhile with lung crud. Ainsley's had a lot of secretions, and a fever off and on.  She was on her way to getting better but I took her to the doctor anyway since she still had more of a fever than I'd like after the weekend. I suspected an ear infection in the right ear and that's what it turned out to be. We opted to put her on antibiotics because I wanted her well for the 4th of July (and our upcoming vacation.) By then she was well and we had a great time.

I have pictures to share from the 4th, but first I want to say that our dear friend Harlie had jaw distraction surgery this week. She's been on our mind a lot and we keep checking in on her often to see how she is doing. She is now 4 days post surgery and has developed pneumonia. Harlie has heart disease and is missing part of her lungs. She is a fighter like no other but some prayers coming her way wouldn't hurt.  Friends all over the internet are showing their support wearing their We Heart Harlie shirts and making special get well cards for her to post on the Internet.  We want the Holton Family to know that We Heart Harlie too!!!!

 

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Here are those pictures.

 

 Everyone brought appetizers. Thanks!

Letting off the daytime fireworks out in the street in front of our house.

Adrian and cousin Evan arranging the "bees" to be lit.

Remind me next year not to buy the hens. Boring!

 

We live in Unincorporated King County so fireworks are still legal where we live.

I agreed to let Uncle Chris show Evie how to light a firework.

I brought Ainsley out in her walker to watch on the grass. Even though they weren't loud she obviously learned to anticipate the sound. What a cutie!

She wore her cap on her trach but even so I don't like her being around this much smoke.  Last year I didn't allow smoke bombs.

We hung out on the back patio under the pergola.  The weather was perfect in the low 80's.

Steve was on the grill this year. After spending hours and hours cleaning the grill (soaking the parts and scrubbing years of grime off with about 4 cans of oven cleaner) I wasn't too happy to come back from taking pictures to find my sparkling clean grill covered in grease and melted cheese. But I'm happy to report Steve did actually clean it all off.

 Adrian cracked me up wearing the Uncle Sam hat all day.  He's claimed it as his but no one is fighting him for the honor.

We had the badminton set up on the lawn and the bocce (no croquet this year.)

Ainsley hasn't been eating since she's been sick but she enjoyed chewing on a hotdog. We'll be starting the push to oral feeding soon.

It was cute to see cousins Issabella and Owen on the swing set with Ainsley.

They had some good fun observing a slug. Too cute even if I do HATE slugs!

Adrian was so pleased that he used $13 of his savings to buy his own fireworks, like these snakes. I was proud of him. And I'm pretty happy that we live in an area where you can still (legally) buy the old fashioned fireworks like these fascinating things.

We said we would buy 10 times as many sparklers this year. 2 packages of 6 boxes are NOT enough! They are kind of expensive. Still, they are my favorite part of the holiday and next year I WILL buy MORE.

We light the fireworks on the lawn. Lots of fountains and not too many aerials since we have a wood roof. Nothing would kill the 4th of July spirit like a roof fire. There was a little incident with my camera, involving salt and beer. So I had to resort to my backup camera. Actually that turned out to be a good thing since my good camera was out of commission I watched the show instead of photographing it. Thankfully it's fixed now though.

We nearly forgot to have Ainsley do a sparkler but Steve saved 2 for her and she cautiously enjoyed them. Yay!

I picked up some red white and blue glow necklaces from the dollar store. It's the kind of thing I am totally against from an environmental perspective. Plastic toys that only last a few hours. But the kids love them so much (ie. they begged and I caved). I think they liked them as much as the fireworks.

It's so great to see Ainsley smiling again! It was a great 4th of July! We hope yours was too!!!