Fourth of July

The Fourth of July was fantastic this year. For the first time, we actually made our Cazier annual t-shirt. Tyler designed it and we transferred the design to t-shirts and even a little onesie for Ivory. I thought about taking the kids to the parade, but Tyler opted for softball instead. We invited whoever wanted to come and we had a fair turnout. The Mack's were there of course and Shannan managed to break our wooden bat and slice open his thumb. We will not argue about the power of his swing anymore. (I think someone else actually cracked the bat first, but Shannan finished it off).
After a leisurely game, we headed home and just relaxed the afternoon away as you should on a holiday. In the afternoon we had invited the Wright's to a park to play water games. We also invited the Barben's at the last minute but I was so glad they came. We barbequed chicken and cabobs and feasted on water melon(can you actually have a summer party without water melon?), potato chips, and an amazingly salad with vegetables out of Kerly's garden. After stuffing ourselves we played water games. I think the kids liked 'Duck, Duck, Goose' the most. You fill a large sponge and tap it on the head of each player saying 'duck'. When you find your 'goose' you wring the sponge out over their head, soaking them thoroughly, then run. Or you can play like Tyler Wright and soak everyone along the way (I can't say that he had a lot of water left when he got to the goose part). The other game everyone really enjoyed was having one person lay down and place a water bottle on his/her forhead. Then the teams takes cups of water and see who can fill the bottle first. The less precise you are, the better the game. We had the Dad's go first and the Cazier's have much better aim. Then again, I wonder if Seth and Liam were really aiming for inside the bottle on their Dad? Steve Barben even took his turn with the bottle. I think his glasses helped keep his eyes dry, but that was about it.
Somewhere in there we used up about 150 water balloons, but we learned the hard way that if you don't have enough air in them, you get a welt, not wet. The ones I had filled were smaller, with no air. I thought they would be easier for the kids to hold. I'll know better next year. After the water works, we busted out the cake. Emilie gave me the idea of adding pudding to the baked cake and it was so moist. It disappeared in minutes. Liam grabbed a fork and was just digging in. It was hilarious.
Everyone went home to dry off and clean up and then we met over at the Barben's for fireworks. It wasn't quite dark since we had bedtimes to think of, but the kids loved them regardless. They took turns picking which one would be next, and although they were all basically the same shower of sparks, it didn't seem to get dull.
I felt very fulfilled as the evening ended. I even managed to talk to June about why we celebrate this holiday and she could tell you that the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. She probably doesn't remember it now, but there is always next year again.

Sorry about the pictures. I haven't figured out how to put them in the text as you go. It's a work in progress.