Our 4th of July....

was relaxing and mellow,

 

and most importantly, sound proof!

The extremely loved and adored Momoo was in town to enjoy it with us.

She brought up my dad's ear muffs sort of as a joke, but I had no shame in actually using them. I wore earplugs underneath and never felt more secure being out in the mean, tough 4th-of-July streets of our hood. Ironically it was the first year that our neighborhood was completely silent and we seemed to be the only wild and crazy law breakers with our sparklers and fountain whatevers.

Everett had a hey-day throwing noise poppers,

but later freaked out when he got a slight burn from a sparkler followed by the terrifying noises of ground flowers. Luckily Momoo has had plenty of practice comforting scaredy-cat adults children.

We also enjoyed a stirring and dramatic original performance of "Happy Birthday America!" by a very patriotic Claire.

We finished off the night around the corner of our house overlooking the huge field where we could see firework shows all over the city at a minimum distance of 5 miles away. Perfection.

Another 4th of July come and gone. Another year survived!

 

Happy birthday, America!