Independence Day.

In honor of the Fourth of July, Nana and Papa invited us over for patriotic cheesecake: YUM!
Once we got there, Ryan was happy to find his long-lost Harry Potter book:
Later that night we went to church. After that, the weather was still holding so we were off to Richland Hills for the Quad Cities Family Fourth. On our way, though, we stopped at Half Price Books to deliver some flag cookies to Uncle Mike. After visiting him, I managed to land the ankle-twist, arms-flailing, cell-phone-flying, 1 1/2 spin fall, ending up flat on my back in the parking lot! Fortunately, the lot was almost empty (except for one weirdo in a car laughing at me), so I could lie on the asphalt long enough to get my composure without getting run over. After my family assessed that yes, I was going to live, all I could feel was pain in my left wrist. And then I couldn't stop laughing at my idiocy! (In my defense, there's a pretty big drop in the pavement, right in the middle of the parking lot. Katie stubbed her toe on it on the way in the store.)

Anyway, after that excitement we drove on to Richland Plaza and made our way to a parking spot. In the past we've gone to Bedford, but because of church and all the mud at the Boys Ranch, we figured a nice, dry parking lot would be lovely this year!
And yes, the kids even got to drink caffeine after 9 p.m.:
The organizers never turned off the parking lot lights near us, so this was our view:
It didn't really matter to us, though! They put on quite a show, complete with synchronized music on an FM station.

It was a grand ol' time! We're so thankful we got to enjoy fireworks and that the rain stayed away tonight.