Our 4th of July celebrations have varied over the years. We have gone to Melba to watch a spectacular firework show and then sat in over an hours worth of traffic just to leave afterwards. We have bought tons of fireworks and set them off at Aaron's dad's house. And this year, we hung out with the Bauer's. Literally every single person that was with us on the 4th of July was a Bauer.
Rewind to the day. Aaron had to work and so Brinnley and I got to hang out. We haven't been going outside lately because it's just been too hott. Aaron and I wanted to paint our kitchen (again) to the same color we have in our living room so it can all flow together. You can see the kitchen from the living room and from my front office so we decided it was time. There was a little paint leftover so I decided to try it out (this was on Thursday...) If you didn't know, our kitchen is tiny and therefore has very minimal walls. It's a galley kitchen that is a walk-through. It continues around and has become Brinnley's favorite racetrack lately! I painted it and thought I hated it right away - but I kept going, kinda had to! Once it the wall behind the sink, dishwasher and our main upper cabinets was finished, I relaxed and waited for Aaron to get home to see how it turned out. It was late and Brinnley was in bed and once he got home, we took a look and we both loved it! The kitchen when we moved in was painted a dark brown - which was weird because it's not only small, but there is just one main window that lets light into it. I don't know why you would have a dark color - but that's besides the point. I picked out a medium toned tan color to paint it (and the hallway) and it was ok. Once we got the lighter grey (it's actually called, Frappe) on the walls, it made such a difference!
On the 4th of July - I decided to use up the rest of the paint and continue to paint the wall that I can see from my front office where the oven and the archway is. Brinnley was awake and playing and saw what I was doing - she immediately wanted to participate. I got a sponge brush, put some water into a snack bowl and off she went. She sat herself in front of the tv and was painting the floor. When she was done there, she followed me into the kitchen and was painting the cabinets, the oven door, and even my legs. The funniest part - there wasn't anymore water in her bowl! She kept putting the brush in there and getting her "paint" and brushing it on wherever she could.
I love how much she is blossoming into a toddler and how quickly she picks things up! She wants to do what we do and we love to include her as much as possible! Now, I need to buy about another gallon of paint to finish the kitchen and continue it into the hallway. I know it will brighten the dark hallway that gets absolutely no light, literally - there's no window OR a light in there. Luckily, it's a small hallway and just encases the bathroom door and Brinnley's bedroom and then continues back around into the living room.
There was a possibility that Aaron would be getting off of work early, but I tried not to get my hopes up. We are lucky that he works only a few miles away and comes home for lunch most days. He was schedule to come home and 1:00 and when he walked through the door he immediately took off his work shirt and threw it down. I looked at him and smiled while I asked, "Are you off for the day?"
"Yup!" was his reply and we all jumped for joy (not literally.. Brinnley may have though!)
We hung around for a bit and slowly got things ready for the evening. We had to go to the store and we decided to not try and brave the crowds at Walmart and headed to Paul's instead. Lately, there have been Coke displays all over and I have been looking for my name and Aaron found it! We took the long way there, if that's possible, also to test out the new DVD player we got for the car and for Brinnley. We have a mega long drive ahead of us soon and we wanted to see how she did. Of course, she HAS to hold onto it so we are lucky there are 2 screens and one has NO buttons that she can mess with!
We had originally planned to stay low key and light some fireworks off at Aaron's dad's house about 3 blocks away. A few days ago, his dad mentioned that his brothers were going out to Ontario to celebrate and that we should join. I hardly ever turn down a Bauer event if I can help it. Especially with Aaron's aunts, uncles, and all his cousins. So of course we said yes. We got out there about 5pm and ate some yummy food. It would be a couple hours before it was dark so everyone just hung out, the boys played basketball, the girls caught up and chatted, and Brinnley ran around like the crazy girl she is. All together, everyone there was a Bauer and there was about 15-20 people there. It was so low key and fun, and just what I needed. I love that Brinnley can be around family as much as she has been lately - I didn't grow up close to any relatives and I missed out on quite a bit. I'm lucky that Aaron has such a great family also - the Bauer's are pretty cool if you ask me. Brinnley loved it, too - she usually goes down for bed around 7pm, but she just wasn't having it. We knew she would be terrified of the fireworks since we 'tested' a few and even just the light up ones freaked her out - so we knew that putting her to bed would be better than scaring the crap out of her. The older Bauer boys got some pretty heavy duty fireworks - I didn't want a frightened daughter the whole time!
Before bedtime, Brinnley enjoyed watching Daddy play basketball and even playing a bit herself! Aaron would lift her up and she would put the basketball in the basket! She kept doing it over and over and over, I'm sure we have a future player in her!
Brinnley finally went to bed around 9:30pm and most of the Bauer boys played a game of basketball while the girls sat around the driveway watching, cheering, and chatting. It was so relaxing and fun. Once it got dark - the fireworks began! You can just imagine how that was yourself. Brinnley didn't stir at all - anyone that went inside for anything would check on her just to be sure the loud ones weren't bothering her - nope, she was out! I got my sparkler fix and Aaron was able to blow things up and light up all the fireworks he bought along with the other ones there! Such a fun memory for our family!
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