Happy Fireworks Day!

Like all good Americans on the 4th of July we grilled some delicious food, donned flag colors, and wanted to end the day with fireworks. So we drove out to the US White Water Center, hoping to see a great display. We had the added bonus of getting to watch people flip their rafts in the rapids while we waited. Don't underestimate the entertainment of watching soaked, flustered people trying to get back in a raft while moving steadily down stream. We spread a blanket, ate blueberries, and enjoyed the free laughs.

The boy ditched us to watch fireworks with his friends. (So begins the breaking of a mother's heart.) The middle girl was high on Benadryl from her latest poison oak outbreak and just about fell asleep on her dad's lap. (That girl loves nature too much for her own good.) So that left us with the little one who impatiently waited all day to see big explosions in the sky. And when the fireworks started so did the questions.

Sicily:

• "Mom, why do they make that big sound."
  

• "Mom, how do they make them go over there and not over here?"

• "Are they going to fall on our heads?"

• "Mom, why does that one look like a flower?"

• "Why does that one look like a sparkler?"

• "Are you sure they aren't going to fall on our heads?"

• "Well, then where do they fall and does it burn what it falls on?"

• "Why is that one so big?"

• "Why did that one go so high?"

• "How do they make colors?"

Me: "I don't know, honey. Ask your dad?"

Steven: "It has something to do with physics."

Sicily thinks about that for a second, and then:

• "Daddy doesn't know. So why is that one pink and not blue?"

• "But why don't you know why it's pink and not blue?"

• "I think you don't know if they're going to fall on our heads."

Me: "Look Sicily, that one's a circle!"

Sicily:

• "No, it's an oval."

• "Why is it an oval?"

• "I don't really like fireworks. They're too loud and they're going to fall on my head."

Oh, children. They have such a lovely ability to keep us humble by occasionally making us feel just a little bit stupid.


I hope all of you enjoyed a wonderfully over analyzed fireworks display too. Happy 4th!