Bombs Bursting In Air

Sure. We could tell you our secret fireworks viewing location. But then we'd have to kill you.

We met up with Cyndy and proceeded to an undisclosed location to watch the Bethlehem fireworks. We got there early to ensure a good spot, and amused ourselves with sparklers for a while.Faith and Juli weren't too sure about the whole fire in people's hands thing, but they had no problems with the star cookies!
Finally, the show started. Everyone ooohed and ahhed, and Juli couldn't stop laughing.

Not to mention the good laugh we all got at Uncle Scott's expense when he was holding Juli and she decided to hold her nose. Apparently, Uncle Scott stinks!
By the time we got back to the house, the kids were wild and riled, and everyone was in a good mood. I think we've discovered a new family tradition!

Stars Everywhere

Faith was so excited about the stars everywhere in our Fourth of July decorations. She was even more excited to get to help make some star shaped cookies for us to enjoy during the fireworks. She helped Kai cut out the stars from white and blue dough, and then add red sprinkles. I'm sure she'll be a big help at Christmas cookie time this year!

Stars and Stripes Forever

When rain threatens on the Fourth of July, you can't just cancel the picnic! So we moved inside to enjoy our feast.
Kairi practiced patriotic songs all day and played Stars and Stripes Forever, along with America the Beautiful and a few others.

Everyone ate their fill of delicious picnic foods, and we sent plates to the family members who couldn't make it - Cyndy had to work and Jon wasn't feeling up to coming over.

Maybe I do go a bit overboard on holidays - but I didn't hear any complaints!

Dorney Day

We had put off buying our Dorney passes because we wouldn't be around to use them, so the kids were so excited to finally head to Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom for the day. We were going to meet Barry and the girls there, but it turned out Barry had a meeting. So we played alone for a little while before Barry dropped the girls off.
Kairi and I braved the Wild Mouse, and Nicky and I rode Thunder Canyon. I personally don't get how Kairi can be afraid of water on her head if she rides roller coasters, or how Nicky can fear a little height when nearly drowning doesn't bug him, but whatever.
Fortunately, we all like the Music Express!
When the girls got here, it was back on the merry-go-round.


And then Barry left me with all five kids. Unfortunately, due to variations in height and willingness to ride certain rides, that caused a lot of situations like this - Nicky and Juli waiting while everyone else rode, or Kairi keeping an eye on Juli so that I could accompany Faith on a ride, because Dorney doesn't consider Kai a "responsible person", or having to ride in two shifts.
But we still managed to get a lot of laughs.
And Hannah got to ride on nearly everything.I swear, we didn't coordinate their outfits...
See, look - Juli's wearing turquoise.
When Barry got back, we headed to the waterpark.

And Nicky suddenly found his brave - turns out his love of water overcomes his fear of heights. He now loves waterslides - as long as they're completely enclosed!

Together at Last

YAY! The fab five has reunited - Hannah is finally here for some of her vacation. The kids were so excited that we get to visit with Hannah for two and a half weeks. Well, okay, right now they're more focused on their pizza (or lack of pizza in Juli's case) but we're all glad Hannah's here!

The MOST Fun

The Museum of Science and Technology (MOST) in Syracuse is definitely the most fun science museum we've ever visited. Of course, the kids probably learned the least about science here of any museum we've ever visited, but learning, scmerning, we're on vacation!
The dominant feature of the museum is a giant several story science playhouse where kids can climb and fire foam balls and slide and jump to their heart's content. Again, not sure what science that teaches, but next time I should bring some socks and explore with them to find out. For strictly educational purposes, of course. *wink*
The kids and I rode on a simulator to "Journey to the Center of the Earth". It was fun, but strangely didn't look a lot like this model of the earth we found later. You can see how confused Nicky is. (Or maybe he's still going for the crazy face boy of the year award.)

One of the neatest areas was a recreation of a New York State cave where the kids could dig for fossils, see an underground waterfall, and crawl through tunnels.

We only had about an hour and a half before closing, so we could have seen and done much more. It was still shockingly fun, though. (Groan, I know, horrible pun.)

Wild Things

I hadn't seen my cousin Celicia in a very long time, so when my Mom suggested we ask her and her family to accompany us to the zoo, I thought it was a great plan. We had a great time getting to know each other again, and her oldest two kids are nearly the precise ages of my two. They took one look at each other and decided to become fast friends - especially Nicky and William. Nicky has a TON of girl cousins, but his boy cousins are all way older and live very far away.

The Syracuse Zoo was very nice. We saw a lot of great animals that the Philadelphia zoo doesn't have, like the beautiful wolves. According to Mom, she gets these guys near her house in the wild! Scary! Of course, Philly does have lions, but not so cute as this guy, who looks just like one of our cats napping!

And we got lots of great close up encounters with other animal favorites, too.

The zoo was beautifully landscaped with native flowers, and my cousin, who is a garden enthusiast, could identify them for us. I figured out these daisies, though.

And of course, what would a trip to the zoo be without lots and lots of monkeys?