Sparklers, take 2

When Phoebe saw the pictures of the kids playing with sparklers on the 4th, she was like, "Wait a minute—when did that happen?" 

So we had to tell her that it happened...after she had gone to bed. She immediately began to have some serious regrets about bedtime, so Andrew promised that we'd pick up some sparklers at the store on Monday and do them again for FHE. 

This sounded like a good plan to her.

Could she remember what they were called?

Absolutely not.

Sprinklers? Spracklers? Spritzes? Sprinkles?

Twinklers? Twizzlerss? Twirlies? Twinkles?

If she was talking about something yesterday, it was highly likely that she was talking about sparklers. 

Or trying to...

Unfortunately for her, there were no fireworks left in the grocery stores on Monday morning—zip, zero, zilch!

Every last firework display had been replaced with back-to-school displays. Yuck!

So I sent out a plea on the good ol' Buy Nothing Group to see if anyone had any sparklers left for my poor youngest child who had slept through the late-night fun the big kids had in the cul-de-sac. 

It took a couple of minutes but soon I had offers pouring in. 

"I have a few boxes!"

"I have so many left over! TAKE MINE!"

"You should have just asked me! The big kids didn't burn through my entire stash on the 4th!" (this last one was from our neighbour who had supplied the sparklers in the first place).

We ended up with plenty of sparklers—enough for Phoebe and all the cul-de-sac kids to enjoy another evening of pyromaniacal mayhem!

Here she is anxiously waiting for her first sparkler to...spark:

She did it! She's sparkling!

Here's Daddy lighting off a whole fistful at once:

And here are pictures of the kids, in general...mostly Zoë, Alex, and Phoebe because Miriam was hosting a game night in the basement and Benjamin soon left us to go up to Reed's house to set off leftover smoke bombs (some stray neighbourhood kids are in the background, I'm sure, but I tried to leave them out of these pictures).

The kids had a lot of fun and although the evening sky was filled with the cacophonic screechings of crickets and cicadas, it felt a little empty without the bangs and sizzles from distant fireworks. It was fun to get out with the neighbours for another summer evening (especially as we're being haunted by back-to-school specters). We're sure going to miss this beautiful cul-de-sac and the wonderful people who make up our community!

Just look at those cars—that teenagers drove to my house to hang out with my teenager! Just look at those towering trees and think of their glorious shade! Just look at those kiddos (some mine, some not) running around with 2000°F sticks in their hands (that's a...safe...and...good...idea...right?)! Just look how the sky foretells of the approaching cooler evening air! 

We are so lucky to have landed here.