4th of July Week

At the beginning of the week, Anthony took James to the grocery store and then to a friend's house to check on his aquariums, leaving me at home with Rett. I was trying to get him to finish his dinner and he kept winking at me. The face he makes when he winks is so ridiculous! He scrunches up his whole face to do it. I laugh every time!

At bath time Rett had so much fun having the bathtub all to himself. He got to play with anything he wanted and didn't get pushed over or have toys taken from him. At one point he decided to start hiding under a bucket and then peak out to see if I was watching him. Love this boy!

The chicks are growing so fast! It is hard to believe they are only 1 week old. They are started to look more like birds than chicks.

While at the playground at McDonalds, James finally convinced Rett to climb up into the tunnels with him. Usually he is too scared to go up there. He liked it for a little while, but then he was crying and I had to climb up there and get him back down.

James tried poprocks for the first time. He loved it! He laughed and laughed!


Rett didn't want to try it, but he watched Anthony eat some. Look at that face! So amazed!

James built a magnatile maze to put the chicks in whenever we clean their cage or I need to check their bottoms. It is so funny to see them stick their heads out of the open squares!

We trekked to home depot to buy wood to start building the pen for the quail. This is the frame Anthony built and painted. He spent all of the holiday adding mesh panels and a door that latches. It is so close to being done! We will probably move the chicks into it in about a week.

They were looking cramped in the tupperware bin, so we switched them to a larger cardboard box. Now it is harder to watch them since the sides aren't see-through. But it is fun to watch them stretch their wings in the larger area!

Smashing a pinata was on our summer list, so the 4th of July seemed like a good day to do it. James was ready to smash it!

Rett wanted to hit it a few times, then he gave the bat back to James to get the job done.

Then we did some sparklers. Just a few because James wanted to save some for after dark.

It was finally time to go see the fireworks! James decided to bring a few firefighter hats.

While we were waiting for the fireworks, the people around us were doing sparklers and small fireworks. It was a great preshow!

Time for the show!

Rett was scared of the "big fireworks", so I brought some headphones for him. He liked them, but he still refused to watch. As soon as they started, the closed his eyes and shut down. I picked him up and he was clung to me for the entire time. I would ask him if he was ok and he would keep his eyes closed and just nod his head.

James laughed and laughed! He loved every minute of it!

Of course, on the way home, Rett was happy and excited and kept saying, "Fireworks! Fireworks!" like he loved it. At least he wasn't traumatized!

Our town had the fireworks a day early, so on the actual holiday, we didn't do much. While Anthony worked on the quail cage, the boys took turns "helping", watching tv, going with us to the store, and we took a few minutes out to do a fireworks craft. We seriously only do crafts twice a year, so here is proof that we did it :)

Happy 4th of July!