BOOM!

Mark loves setting off fireworks and lives for the 4th of July. It was a very happy day in our house when the law was passed to make certain types of fireworks legal in Michigan.  No more late night trips to the Indiana border.  Mark took up a collection from everyone who was going to be at our 4th of July celebration.  He searched the Phantom Fireworks website and watched videos of various fireworks.  We loaded up the kids and headed to our local Phantom Fireworks store to stock up.  (I've learned that Phantom is a great place to buy fireworks because it's buy one get one free, which means you get more bang for your buck. ;-).  We filled up the cart and headed to the check out. Mark got to use his preferred customer card (yes, he really has one) to get even more fireworks for free because we spent so much (thankfully, we had a collection of money to spend, not all of our own). 

All children should have a picture of them sitting dangerously on the kitchen counter surrounded by hundreds of dollars in explosives.  It was a challenge to keep the 'snap-its' away from the kids while we took the pictures. 

  For traveling, Mark unpacked everything and put it in our Stow and Go in the van.  I bet the creator of the Stow and Go never thought it would be used for hauling explosives. ;-)  I prayed that we didn't get into some sort of accident on the way up north.

The show went off without a hitch and everyone LOVED the fireworks (except Erin who cried so she and I sat in the house to watch the show).  Over the 4th of July, it doesn't get dark in Munising until 11:00ish.  We had lots of time to hangout and watch the beautiful sunset.  Mark set up his firework launchers on the beach and prepared for the darkness to set in.  We 'battled' with the neighbors who also had fireworks.  They would let some off and then we (Mark) would launch some of ours.  We don't have any pictures of the fireworks because everyone was too busy enjoying the show.

Pictures with Oma

We took some pictures with Oma before we left on July 8. I think that they turned out great! The kids LOVED riding on her walker so they took turns getting a ride.  Both kids held on tight and enjoyed the ride.

More Zoo Pictures

Will Fed the Birds at the Zoo

As you can see in the first picture, Will wasn't sure about feeding the birds. He had to observe everything (just like he does) and study the whole situation.  Will kept looking up to see what was happening above him.  I have to admit, I was a little worried about getting pooped on while in here. There are birds flying everywhere. I didn't notice them with Erin, but I did when I was in the cage with Will.  Here are some of the pictures from Will's bird feeding experience. The last picture shows you what he kept looking up at (but picture 50 more-now you can understand my concern).

Erin Fed the Birds at the Zoo

Our zoo has a walk in bird cage filled with beautiful birds. For $1.00 you can buy a stick of bird food and go in the cage to feed the birds. I bought two sticks and took turns taking Will and Erin in to feed the birds.  In the first picture, Erin is trying to say bird (she has really understood the 'b' sound lately and I'm learning how many thing start with 'b'-but that's another blog).  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. I love them and am so glad that my mom captured this experience and the expressions on our faces.