4th of July

We didn't have any plans today.  We woke up at 8 and went for a walk with Felicity (in the stroller).  When we got back, the boys were doing their inside chores and the front lawn had already been mowed.  Good boys!  It has been a pretty typical day for us.  I've mentioned this on other social media sites but fireworks are banned here in Denver and surrounding cities and in fact, most of Colorado is under a fire ban and therefore, firework ban.  There are a few cities that allow firecrackers but here, we can't even have sparklers.  I bought poppers and we had a fun time messing around with those.  Isaac was being kind of playful grumpy at first saying, "I doubt the poppers will be worth the cleanup."  I told him his life would be awfully boring if it weren't for me making him do fun things that he seems unnecessary.  Of course, he ended up enjoying himself and probably liked it more than everyone else.  Typical.  Isaac is so unceremonial.  He doesn't really get hung up on traditions or celebrations so it is not uncommon for him to wonder why we are doing such and such and then in the end, I think he appreciates it.  He would NOT appreciate it if we were the kind of family to drive to a super crowded spot to wait for dark to watch fireworks and then spend an hour to walk to the car and another hour to drive home in the traffic.  So darn it--he can do poppers!

Mike smoked ribs for us and they were delicious.  I made corn on the cob and potato salad and a friend brought over frogs eye salad.  Last night Mike made cobbler (I don't know if I've ever made cobbler?) so we will eat cobbler and ice cream and once the sun goes down, I'll let the kids climb on the roof and we will wait to see if anyone breaks the law and sets fireworks off.  There have been fireworks going off all day already, especially during the storm.  The rain let up but the sky was so angry and dark and there was a lot of thunder and then the fireworks kept going off as well so it's been noisy day.

I might make Mike watch a movie with me tonight.  We just finished a season of Lost in Space and now we are watching the Mandilorian and I can't seem to get into it.  It's not bad but I'd rather watch something else.  So, tonight, I might make us watch a chick flick of some sort.

I don't usually do a photoshoot for the 4th of July but Mike is having a promotion ceremony at the end of the month so it seemed like a good time to do a photoshoot for both that and the 4th.  I wanted to try to do an overlay on a photo but I have no firework pictures.  My brother sent me some pictures he took of fireworks and I used his pictures to create some of these.  An overlay is basically putting a picture on top of another picture.  People do overlays a lot with twinkly lights at Christmas time or sometimes bubbles...I can't think of any other examples right now.  I wanted to try the fireworks and the first attempt worked but the fireworks weren't very bright since the sky behind the girls was still really light.  Today, with the storm, the sky was dark so the overlay worked much better.  Learning a new photography skill doesn't come easy for me and I get frustrated and impatient.  Someone else (anyone else?) would learn the skill in half the time it takes me and I am embarrassed to admit how long it took me to figure it out but now I've got it and it seems easy and I'm happy to have learned a new skill.  I probably won't do it a lot so the next time I want to do it I'll have forgotten how and have to relearn.  Oh well.  I'm going to celebrate the new skill for now!