More Fourth of July pics.

The kids in Todd's family are all growing up fast...which is a little sad, but also great fun. This year they are five, six, seven, and eight years old--perfect ages to play card games, have interesting conversations, do jigsaw puzzles, and make very funny jokes. I adore the baby and toddler stages, but there's something even more satisfying about seeing them grow into very interesting people.

My niece Gianna, the seven-year-old, asked to borrow my camera one afternoon, and I let her take it. I'm definitely going to have to remember that trick--she got more interesting pictures than I ever would have and all I had to do was sit back and relax!

And grown-ups give much better smiles when it's a cute kid pointing the camera at them.

Of course she had to get a shot of herself in there, too.

The neighbors gave my mother-in-law some bubbles for the kids, and that was not only fun for the kids, but also for Roscoe the dog, who apparently loves to chase--and eat--bubbles.

Anna, being the smallest, often gets left out of the older three's plans and schemes, but she's good at finding a willing adult to play with her.

I don't seem to have any pictures of the endless games I played with the kids--Big Fish, Little Fish, Go Fish, Uno, Slamwich, Twister...I was too busy playing to run my camera, I guess. But we had a really great time together. And the grown-ups played cornhole, and took out the kayaks, and fished. I played a couple of cornhole games, but spent most of my time hanging out with the kids.

At night we had fireworks, which I never bother trying to get pictures of--but I almost wish I had tried, because it was by far the best fireworks display we've ever seen at the lake. We take our chairs down to the water and see various people setting them off all around the lake, and this year, five or six groups really outdid themselves. We had fireworks of our own for the first time, too, courtesy of Andrew, Julie's boyfriend, who brough a nice stash to set off. My family never bought fireworks when I was a kid, not even sparklers or bottle rockets, so I was thrilled to have some of our own to light.

So it was just about a perfect Fourth. Great weather (maybe a little too cold at night, but I'm not complaining!), great company, lots of laughs.

I'll share the other things we did later on.