Happy 4th of July (Ten Days Ago)!

I would like to tell you that the reason I have not blogged in almost two weeks is because I was on an extended tour of Italy.

On a bicycle.

All by myself.

But sadly, that is not true. I was here at Casa Flamingo or at the Y or at . . . well, that's pretty much it. But let's pick up where we left off and you can just fuss at me in the comments for leaving you hanging for so long.

At Casa Flamingo, our July 4th capped off an entire week of rain. And I don't mean normal Florida afternoon thunderstorms -- I mean morning until night rain. On Saturday, the 3rd, we celebrated July 4th Eve like all good Southern Baptists, who are prohibited from imbibing spirits or shooting off fireworks on the 4th if it falls on a Sunday, because shooting off fireworks is a lot like dancing and imbibing spirits is a lot like drinking unless you capitalize "Spirits" (like so) and then you are worshipping like a charismatic, which is also prohibited. But I digress. And I also make up stuff.

The real reason we shot off fireworks on the 3rd was because we purchased the fireworks on the 3rd.

And there was no break in the rain, so why not have a little fun?

And my husband and youngest child cannot wait to set things on fire.




Flamingo Joe, to give him credit, tried to restrain himself by only setting off things that made a lot of smoke and no actual fire.



That's not fog. It's smoke.



"And the rockets red glare . . . the bombs bursting in air . . ."

Then Flamingo Joe brought out the heavy stuff:



After a couple of near misses, we decided the children should probably have shoes on:



Those are really my shoes, but we seem to have six or eight pairs of shoes sitting outside our front door (with all the shoes outside the house, you'd think there'd be no dirt inside the house, but you'd be wrong) so Mace put mine on instead of going in to find his.

On Sunday night, we shot off the big stuff and noted all the appropriate warnings:



I just can't believe any merchant is allowed to sell a product whose label states: "WARNING -- SHOOTS FLAMING BALLS". And "close adult supervision" is not really a very precise instruction when the adult shooting off said flaming balls is as excited as a four year old shooting flaming balls into the sky. The warning label should really be more specific and limit supervision to actual firemen. Not that the flaming balls set anything on fire (unless you count the top of that tree -- but it was raining, so no harm, no foul). Fireworks are against the law in Florida unless they are purchased for "agricultural purposes." So when you go to the fireworks stand you have to sign a form that says you are using the fireworks for agricultural purposes.

Here we are using fireworks to fertilize our weeds:



Happy Belated 4th!