Not the 4th

Even though today was a workday and not the 4th of July, my city decided to celebrate. B's brother Allen and his three children were in from Nashville, and it's always good to see them. In the picture are Carlie and Peyton in the front and Ethan and C in the back. Ethan and C are six months apart. Yeah, puberty's a real bitch. She's not only a foot taller, she's twice his weight. I'm thinking some of it may have to do with the fact that the only food he eats are hot dogs (no bun), chicken fingers, and pepperoni pizza. Occasionally he'll eat macaroni and cheese. Fortunately C got some of her mom's DNA and doesn't have that Children of the Corn pasty skin, light hair, and light red-rimmed eyes look that her cousins do.

As you can see, C's hair is a lovely shade of plum. Her mom's hippy friends came in last week and taught her how to dye her hair with vegetable dye. She loves it. My FIL almost had a stroke. C dyes her hair and Ethan let his grow out. My FIL eats-lives-breathes fifties mentality. It wears me out.

So they all had to try the Mentos & Diet Coke Experiment. As you can see from the picture, C had to put it in her mouth and let it foam.

We live about 50 yards from the riverbank where the city's fireworks are set off, and they all walked down to watch. I stayed back and started cleaning up from the havoc wreaked by Thing 1, Thing 2, and Thing 3, otherwise known as C's cousins. About 30 minutes later, instead of hearing fireworks booming overhead, the entire house lights up with lightening and I hear a huge clap of thunder. That storm hit so hard and fast, everyone was soaked to the skin within seconds. I was amazed at how fast they ran the 50 yard dash! Needless to say, the fireworks were cancelled