CAUTION! Pyromaniacs at Work...

Happy (late) Fourth of July!!!!
This is the only time of year that I turn into a pyro, honestly. :0) Then I'm just as bad as Josh and Hannah!
Starting out the morning of the Fourth, Josh and I had to "test" some of the fireworks left over from last year to make sure they worked. We "tested" for about an hour, then had to go inside to help around the house. We left about 3:00 to pick up more fireworks and then we went over to the S's for a party. The B's, Colin and Rachel C, Joel S, Kezzi E, and the other S's were there too. All of us kids (well, from Lizzy down, anyway) played two rounds of King's Base. I had an interesting time because, while Mom said I could play, I had to keep my foot brace on. It's not real easy to run on something that's supposed to keep your foot inflexible, but I did it anyway!
Then we ate supper and broke out the fireworks. I skillfully managed to burn myself with a punk, but other then that it was so much fun! David and Andrew blew up a toy truck with mortars. Joel had a really good idea for smoke bombs...he shot them into the air with his slingshot. That was cool! Then for a while everyone was preoccupied with blowing with toy army men that David, Luke, and Sarah's family had brought. Luke and I succeeded! We taped it to a rocket. :0) Luke, Jake, and I set off some mortars, then everyone went inside and got dessert (homemade ice cream and watermelon, thank you Mom and Joel!). After dessert, Jake, Andrew, and I went to set off some fountains and stuff for a "big" display for the parents. Joel, Lizzy, and Colin ended up coming out too, Lizzy and Joel just to watch and help if needed and Colin to set off his bunch of mortars. Much fun! Next year I'm going to get some bigger rockets and save them for the end.
Then we went inside and ended the evening with some praise time. We sang my two all time favorite worship songs, "Days of Elijah" and a new one we learned at Worldview, "Mighty to Save". I think my family got home at 12:30. We absolutely had a blast!
Then yesterday our cousins stayed with us on the way to drop Joseph off at a camp. Joseph, Josh, and I set off some bottlerockets, then went down to our pond. We threw firecrackers in the water. It's neat to see them explode underwater, but I also discovered something a lot more fun!
Right now, even though it's rained a lot, our pond has a lovely ring of gooey mud around it. I stuck a firecracker in the mud and lit it. Wow! It threw mud everywhere! So that amused us for about a half hour, then the mosquitoes got too bad even with smoke bombs around us, so we went back to the house. We didn't realize exactly how much mud we'd gotten all over ourselves until we go inside. :0)
So we've had a LOT of fun this weekend. Hope you guys all have too!
(I will try to post our much belated moving blog soon). :0)