Lemonade, Root Beer and Fireworks

What was going to be a simple evening with my two wonderful boys turned into a fun evening with teenagers and lot of friends. I love the Fourth Of July celebration.

Every year people flock to our church lawn to watch the fireworks. About seventeen years ago, when I was a member of the youth group, I suggested that the church sell lemonade to the people on the lawn. After all, we have to clean up after them so we might as well make some money also. The lemonade stand was a hit and has now grown to popcorn, root beer floats and other items. I look forward to eating root beer floats on the church lawn every year and supporting the Senior High Youth Group at the same time.

This year I decided to invite our teenage friend, J. J asked if her cousin and cousin's nephew could also come. The nephew is 4 years old and just as cute as can be. I gladly told them yes and everyone piled into our van. It was now me with 3 young children and 2 teenagers all on our way to a fun evening.

I bought everyone root beer floats and the teenagers quickly went off to do teenage girl things while they waited for the show to start. Jacob and M played with some kids that we see every year and managed to talk me into buying glow necklaces and lemonade also. What I thought would be a five dollar evening was quickly twenty dollars and worth every cent. I spent the evening talking to adults from the church and just relaxing and watching my children play.

When the fireworks started, the teenagers and all of the kids climbed onto our blanket. We settled in and watched a nice demonstration with the rest of the crowd. After the show, I escorted everyone back to the car and we began driving away. The rain came about ten minutes later and we were all grateful we were able to see the show before the rain started.

I really enjoyed having my house and car full of kids. It was fun to watch them all enjoy each other and just spend time together relaxing. No pressures and no worries. Just fun. It takes a long time for children who have suffered abuse or neglect to settle down but we are finally making it. We are finally able to just have fun as a family.