Our 4th of July fun!

I had so many pic's I wanted to share..I decided to just do a mini presentation. We really didn't have our plans for the 4th set when we woke up in the morning like I'm sure many people did. Most 'normal' people had planned this day way in advance. Well, we are somewhat abnormal, as anyone who knows us knows! Our eldest was wanting to go to the lake because her friend from church was going. But the lake is a little bit of a drive and with the way our finances are (and the lame-o prices of gas!) we decided not to. But! Don't let that stop this family from having fun! Oh,No! Also...the forecast in our area was for thunderstorms...oooh! Yet the temperature is still in the low 90's..uugh. So I had the idea to put our 'family/kiddie pool' under the car port and swim. We also had a little table top grill and had our own little 'cook out'! It was exciting to swim with it raining and thundering all around! Then we had 4th of July cupcakes...watched firework on t.v. in New York. They actually had rolling dice fireworks...wow! Afterward at about 9pm, which is when it is almost dark here (weird, huh?). We all piled in the family van and drove to the parking lot of a Jack-in-the-Box. This is were a friend said is the place to be to watch fireworks! Wow..it was cool..we were able to watch 2 shows! We told the kids they could sit on top of the van (they did not wiggle and I was close by). It was amazing, the baby just slept patriotically inside the van through it all. And little miss blondie did not like all the booming so she did not last long with bro and sis on top of the van. As soon as the grand finale exploded for one of the shows I anounced that it was time to go. We stopped to pick up vanilla ice-cream on the way home...(yes it was late..uh about 10pm, but it's a holiday)to make home made vanilla shakes. Mmmm...they were good. So once we had the kids good and sugared up and hiped up from the fireworks show...we sent them soundly to bed!
I just love to be creative and think 'out of the box' and make the most memories with what you have. Just because we lack in the monetary area does not mean we can't have fun with our kids and make awesome memories! I hope your 4th was just as memorable and fun as ours!