Four for the Fourth

I really wanted to make the Fourth of July a special holiday for the kids. We do usually catch a fireworks show every year, but I wanted to turn it into something really fun that they look forward to every year. So my bright idea was that we could attend a fireworks show every night and spread out our celebration over the entire weekend. This was tricky because I had to find a local firework show that we could attend each night. Friday night was the hardest, so we ultimately decided to redeem our free tickets to the Slammers Game for a Fireworks Night (not affiliated with the 4th of July). The kids were all really well behaved for the entire game. Nick caught a foul ball so Noah was really excited about that. I also thought the game was good timing since Noah was going to a Slammers Game the following week with his Summer Camp. That way he would be familiar with the ballpark and be extra excited about it since he had just been there. Charlotte fell asleep right as the firework show was starting and she not only slept through that, but the walk to the car, the ride home, and her pajama change.

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On Saturday night we went a show on the riverfront in Joliet. Of all the shows, the location of this was the most interesting, although the fireworks themselves weren't terribly spectacular. Sometimes Noah thought the fireworks were too loud, but most of the time he was fine. Charlotte was up initially, but I rocked her to sleep halfway through the show.

Sunday night we hit up Lockport's annual Fourth of July show. Nick went for a walk with Wyatt and came back with two light up swords, which created two very happy little boys. At the end of the weekend, we determined that this show was the best of the four. (Lockport supposedly allocated more money towards fireworks this year, so maybe that was why they won the top spot). Charlotte sat calmly and watched the entire fireworks show.

Our fourth and final show was our hometown fireworks on the night of the 4th. They were 'almost' as good as the previous night. This time we brought a light-up snowflake along for CeCe so that each kid had their own (snowflake was Noah's from the Zoo Holiday lights last year). We also met up with some friends so that made our final night a ton of fun. A bonus from all the late nights was that the kids slept in an extra hour every morning!