March 28, 2024

Fire and fireworks

Often, when a holiday weekend comes around, the “vacation” time doesn’t feel like much of a vacation. That was the case over the Fourth of July holiday when I didn’t clock in for four days, but it didn’t feel like I took any time off, either.

I kicked off the long weekend by hosting my husband’s family for family pictures. We had just finished our remodeling that week, so I had to get into gear cleaning, rearranging and fixing some snacks for the night.

My mom could see my struggles and came over to help out. She completed my least favorite task of folding laundry and also helped clear out the rolls of carpet we had just removed from our living space.

I got all of the treats ready for the night, got the girls and myself ready for pictures and set up the house to be the hostess with the most-est (OK, not really, but I try).

Pictures went well, the photographer did a great job with all of the kiddos and hopefully in a few weeks we will have new pictures to replace those that were taken when we counted my youngests’ age in months. My husband thought a fire would be a good idea, and he lit up a few pine branches that had been in a pile since last fall.

Much to my surprise they created a fire with flames that reached the tree 30 to 40 feet above. I have to admit, I panicked a little but with everyone’s help we got it under control and not more than 10 minutes later we barely had a fire as all of the pine needles were done for.

Saturday, we got to sleep in for a bit and were treated to a nice meal that evening. I guess there was a bit a vacation down time in there.

Sunday, we were back at it again, celebrating the holiday with my family with a delicious potluck meal, mostly thanks to my mom, and had a lot of fun playing bags and watching the girls dance around with sparklers. The look in their eyes and the squeals that came when the “special” sparkler began changing colors and shooting sparkles into the air was great.

On the Fourth, we were up bright and early to walk in the Newton parade. The girls thought their flag shirts were great and were more than excited to practice their wave and instruct their dad on how to throw out candy to all of the spectators.

Being the busy girls they are, we headed from one parade to another to ride with their cousins during the Pella parade that afternoon. This time they got to throw out treats themselves and had a great time doing it.

That evening we headed back to hang out with my husband’s family for dinner and ended the evening with a fireworks show from both the kids and their sparklers and glow bracelets and the larger presentation in the sky.

Being busy can be hard but giving my kids experiences and making memories is always worth it. I just need to start planning an actual vacation that has no plans at all.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson
at jpierson@newtondailynews.com