4th of July

I've been so busy and spending so much time out in the yard and garden that I haven't had time to update my blog. We didn't have as large a gathering as we have in the past for the 4th but we totally enjoyed those that were able to be here. The weekend of the 4th was a rainy weekend, but not a stormy one. The rain was bearable without the wind and craziness. We set up the tables in the studio for games and eating...
Two long tables lengthwise out from one wall...

...one long table lengthwise for the food and the third table out lengthwise to the center for use as needed.

The ladder, above, was so the older kids could climb up into the loft to free up more room below.

Below is how you get a fire started with wet wood. You just need a good bellow to get a hot fire.

The rain stopped just in time for the kids to start lighting their fireworks.

The big kids were ready to voluntarily get wet.

Also notice in the picture below the large white area above the pool. That's the screen for the movies.

Here's a shot of the yard. You can see the barbecue grills under the canopy.

The pool is new this year, the one we had for 5 years finally bit the dust. The new pool is much larger and came with a volleyball net and ball which the kids soon put to use.

A lot of energy was exerted having fun.

Then darkness fell and the light show began. This was on the street and went on for quite some time.

The city fireworks was shot off the night before for the school's 100 year celebration that was going on. It was still raining off and on and I didn't take my camera outside because of it.

Members of our family had bought some nice fireworks...

...and there were other families in the neighborhood shooting theirs off, too.

I like this silhouette shot.

The person in town that shot off the city fireworks had a few of the same to shoot off for the 4th. There was a whole series of ones like the one below....

...with one like this between...

...another like this.

The rain was really a blessing because it hadn't rained in a while and things were rather dry, easily burned. So the rain made for a very safe 4th. We all had a wonderful time, missed those that were elsewhere but felt their presence.

Independence Day 2009!

July 4th is when the family gathers at my house.

The grandchildren make full use of the pool, keeping cool on the hot July days.
My son-in-law is our grill chef and this year they had a new grill to use with our grill that we got last year.

Friday night we had rain. It started out nice and gentle. It came and went, came and went. Later it came down heavier and around 4:30 or 5am my campers all came inside to sleep. The tent below caved. These tents are just NOT designed to deal with anything but nice weather.

My handyman son and I had stayed up cleaning up the studio and making it ready to use, but the campers didn't know this. Here you can see that we later set up a table and chairs and the grandchildren ate their breakfast in the studio. They were really enjoying the shade in the backyard too.

Time for fireworks and getting them all sorted and divided out. See the large red package in the center of the table? That's 4,000 firecrackers in 4 bundles. These were set off all at the same time, 4 people lighting one each of the bundles. I was in the house when this was done and it sounded like it went on forever.

When I went outside the street was cover with what looked to be little pieces of red tissue paper. Click on the picture below and look at the street. This is what it looked like for at least a block.

The sil got out on the street with a broom and cleaned this all up before it had a chance to blow anywhere. This picture may look a bit blurry because I was experimenting with the settings on my camera. This picture was taken after sundown without a flash. I was trying to remember the settings for taking pictures of fireworks.

I am attempting to put the slide show for my fireworks in this post. If the slide show doesn't work I may have to post it by itself.

Slide Show Removed and posted individually on July 7

After the fireworks the big "boys" got down to the games on the side of the house. I sat back at the firepit and help the grandkids make s'mores.

Here's a flash photo of the outside theater from behind the firewood pile.

We had a wonderful 4th of July, even with the rain interrupting out sleep.

4th of July 2008

What a week it has been! This is usually my busiest time of the year and this year was no exception. We had a wonderful day all around for the 4th of July. The weather was perfect! Family started arriving in the afternoon and we all gathered in my yard for a barbecue.
In the hustle to get everything going we forgot to get the potatoes on the fire, so they were a little late getting prepared.
After dinner everyone got busy with relaxing, visiting and shooting off fireworks.
The kids also got busy with having fun and keeping cool in the pool.
We had enough food to cover two long tables.
We also celebrated KP1's birthday, though it's really a few days off. This year, for reasons unknown, she decided she wanted a Hawaiian birthday. So her mom and aunt made her a Hawaii birthday cake.

While the birthday girl opened presents, the boys went back to doing what boys do best, blow things up.
My son had friends from his previous job come out and help us celebrate. They brought with them a couple of large containers of fireworks to add to our display. Everyone had a GRAND time.
Here is my first attempt at shooting fireworks with my new camera...
Bob and Bec, tell me what you think happened...
...these first three seem to be what I would say are "in focus"....

...but this next one appears blurred to me (click on them to see what I'm talking about).
...all the ones following are not as crisp as the first three.
I was right underneath ALL of them, really close. I hadn't moved for any of them and they were all being shot from the same location. I didn't intentionally change any settings.
Do you think that maybe I or someone else might have turned the focus ring on the lens? Would this have caused these to be out of focus like this?
Or do you suspect some other problem? They're still pretty, even if they're out of focus. I hope everyone had a VERY HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! as we did.

New Toy

Yesterday I had posted that we had gone shopping in Wichita. My hubby bought me a new 'toy' while we were at Lowes. Something every girl should have, a chain saw...
Below is the tree before I got started on it yesterday.
The kids had gone to buy fireworks and I think I sawed on the tree for about and hour and a half. Below is what it looked like when the kids got back from their shopping trip.
There has been a lot of work going on in my yard all day and we'll be at it again tomorrow.
The new movie screen got put up, but it turns out that it's not as big as the one we did have. It will have to do for now. We all kicked back and was "The Spiderwick Chronicles" when it got dark.

Some things I want to share

Every 4th of July my family has a reunion of sorts at my house. It's all about family, having fun and kids. My son and I have been working on making my yard a place to have fun for the last 3 or 4 years. Here is some of what we have accomplished...

These are from July 2007:
The pool with deck built next to it...


We seperated the ladder that came with the pool placing the half with the platform extending into the pool. The platform is screwed to the top of the deck and we replaced the tall handles with smaller ones that are easier to get around. The ladder on the outside of the deck raises up when the pool is not in use, keeping the little ones from climbing in when they are not supervised.







Below you can see the deck behind my granddaughters blowing bubbles. When not in use the ladder is simply raised, it's hinged at the top of the ladder, and I use a bungee cord to secure it as high as I can reach. The building to the left is the showerhouse/outhouse (more about that later).

Here the kids are playing in the sandbox. This isn't the best picture, but the only good one I have from this year. This is the second sandbox we've had, the other was half the size and as much as the kids enjoyed it, we HAD to make this bigger one.

On the right hand side of this picture you can see my lawn mower with the wagon hitched up. All the children come running when I fire it up to take a ride in the wagon. Being in a small town we travel everywhere with it.

Here's a picture of our dining area in the front yard. The chandelier I had gotten for free off of "Freecycle". It was originally electric, but I gutted it and use votive candles in it. The reason it was given away is that one of the globes was missing and I had a difficult time replacing it. The globes on the table are two that were purchased thinking I was buying replacements only to realize they were too big. But a nice big candle and a couple of pie plates make for excellent table candles that match.

In this next picture you see the swimming pool to the left, the fire pit center front and the projection booth with the screen on the side of the house to the right. Beyond the projection booth is the children's playhouse and stage which I will show in a later post.

Here's a pic of my granddaughter and her friends around the fire pit for her 9th birthday sleepover that she had last Friday night. It started with a pool party and BBQ then they gathered round the fire and watched a movie and roasted marshmellows and made s'mores. After they'd had enough sugar they moved closer to the screen and played a Shrek xbox game till mama decided it was time to roll into the sleeping bags in the tent.

Here's a picture of the back side of the tents that we pitched for 4th of July. It gets really cramped in my house if we have to put everyone inside, which the storms have forced us to do on the 4th of July.

That's all for now.