another summer milestone is in the books and we all survived...but just barely. 

as our little family has done for the past three years, we headed over to amy's house for a 4th of july BBQ and fireworks show. 
the problem when you go to amy's house is this - she usually has some delicious treat sitting out, staring you in the face. it makes it extremely difficult to exercise any form of willpower. 

in this case - i ate my way through four oreo cookies, approximately three handfuls of chips, seven or eight chocolate covered pretzels...and after that i'm not sure what happened. i blacked out. 
but the good news - i managed to get my act together to watch kids have a water gun fight and light a million fireworks.

oh yeah...and i beat amy at ladder golf. this is huge and should be mentioned because she pretty much beats me at...oh...everything. i'm probably going to challenge her to a 40 yard dash next. i feel like i could be on the verge of a winning streak. 
i digress...

after my oreo cookie black out, but before kaye started melting down because of severe sleep depletion...we lit fireworks. 

we started with sparklers, which in my opinion are the very most dangerous fireworks of all. 
now...i understand it wasn't in our best judgement to give our one year old bitty a sparkler, but she's a very mature 20 months...or something like that.

well, as my sweet bitty-boo was swinging her sparkler around, the end of it burned off and about a two inch piece fell off. before i could scoop her up, she stepped right on it and burned her tiny little foot...pretty badly. the worst part was it stuck to her foot. she managed to shake it off and i managed to get the burning stick from her hand. daddy scooped her right up and amy grabbed some ointment for the burn. my gal immediately stopped crying and really might be the toughest little thing i've ever seen. farm girl...i guess. 
(hindsight - not only should she not have had a sparkler, but she should have been wearing shoes!!!!)

the burn is now all bubbled up and blistered...and looks so so sad. she didn't want to walk on it yesterday morning, but she's fine with it now. if anyone has any advice about popping that blister, let me know! (i read you're not supposed to, but it goes against all my instincts.)

regardless...after the burn incident we continued to light about 239840 more sparklers and about 10 "big" fireworks. 
brody and kaye picking out the big fireworks.
my poor girls have no clue what actual fireworks look like. we have yet to take them to a show. before you judge, know that it doesn't get dark dark in idaho until about 10:30 pm in the summer time. so fireworks don't start until 11...maybe slightly before. we'll go when they are older. 
guilty - i gave her the sparkler.
everyone was gloriously tucked into bed by 10 pm. oh wait...no. no they were not. 

once we got home, kaye was such a hot mess with all the excitement and oreo pops she proceeded to throw a 45 minute fit about...everything and anything she could think of. 

the best excuse was, and i quote, "daddy hurt me."

"how did daddy hurt you, sweet girl?" (i talk to her very calmly and sweetly when she's being dramatic.)

"he hugged his sweet, little girl too hard."

yes - kaye referred to herself in third person as daddy's sweet, little girl. then she cried about daddy's hug that was too hard for at least 15 minutes. so dramatic.

about 15 minutes after that i lost my patience and started in with the threats. 

she complained her bed wasn't comfortable and i told her she could sleep somewhere else. i offered up our unfinished basement bathroom to which she replied - "ewwwww. that's disgusting."

i told her she better just sleep in her nice, comfy bed. 

mommy one that argument. boom.

after a few threats kaye was finally staying in bed and i was finally in a nyquil-induced sleep. (i've had a ridiculous cough for three nights now. it keeps me up most of the night. any home-remedy suggestions will be greatly appreciated.)
one burn // 2309284 fireworks // four meltdowns later...another 4th of july is in the books. 

thank you to amy for all her glorious photos and for hosting another wonderful celebration!