Jared and his friends have had an annual Third of July party for over 10 years. Jared hosted it in the back yard this year, so I decided to “co-host” even though Karyn, Bryan, and Hannie were my only guests.

It was a good excuse to clean my apartment, even though no one saw it.

My camera’s batteries died after this photo and I was too lazy to go upstairs to get a different camera. These photos are the only proof that I had guests at the party, too.

Jared bought this nice game set for the party. One side was a washer toss, and the other was a bean bag toss. It provided good activity between dinner-eating and firework-igniting.

The windows about the net lights are mine. I think Ampersand watched the party most of the night.

Ava’s shirt reads “Daddy’s Little Firecracker” and her version of hula hooping was spinning herself in a circle, pulling the hula hoop around with her. Too cute!

Sarah is about 4 months pregnant. She was the hula hooping star of the evening—at one point hula-ing two hoops; one was around her upper baby belly and the other was around her lower baby belly. Color me impressed! I bet the baby was having a good time, too.

Then someone decided we should be lighting fireworks out in the street.

Why do boys seem to turn into zombies around fireworks?