Momma Needs another Cup of Coffee: Fourth of July

(I do apologize for the untimely nature of this post. It's been a bit hectic around here lately...)

Ryan and I have always made a point of making the fourth of July "our holiday". It hasn't always worked, but we've always tried to stay here and celebrate it together. Maybe that's because I always find fireworks to be both romantic and a little bit scary, or maybe its just because we love the old-fashioned way DeKalb does the fourth. Before we had kids, we talked about how fun it would be once we were parents. And it has been. Its funny though, because even though we think of the fourth now as "our family's holiday", we always celebrate with our best friends from college, Tim and Rachel. I guess that makes them part of the family.

This year, the girls and I had to leave town for the night of the fourth, so we decided to have a bonfire and camp-out in the backyard on the third. It had all of the barefoot fun and late-night appeal of the usual fourth of July celebration without the crowds of people. We set the tent up early in the morning, and Nora and Emily had a blast playing in it all day long. While they amused themselves by hiding under their blankets in the tent, Ryan and I took turns in the hammock. After dinner, Tim and Rachel came over for the bonfire portion of the evening. I decided to put Emily to bed inside, in part because I was worried about her safety, and in part I don't think she's old enough to be able to sleep well in the tent. She really likes her bed, and I didn't want to push my luck and ruin everyone's evening.

The fire started up nicely, and we pulled our chairs around. Nora was overly excited to be hanging out with the grown-ups, and she stayed up way too late. But isn't that what the fourth of July is about? We made s'mores and ate cupcakes and the grown-ups enjoyed some grown-up beverages. Nora helped make the s'mores, but decided she didn't want to eat any because the marshmallows were toasted. She slept in the tent next to the fire, only peeking her head out occasionally to complain that we were making too much noise. What a stinker! But is was a great evening. I really wanted to sleep in the tent with her, but the weatherman called for rain, so a little after eleven we brought her inside and put her to bed. We tucked our little sleepy-head in, gave her kisses, and I made a little promise to her that we would have another backyard camp-out, and soon.