Fourth of July

For the 4th of July, we usually get a bucket of fried chicken and take the kids to the local fireworks display. This year, we did it a bit differently. We wanted to get Grand dad and take him to his house and get him out of the TCU (Transitional Care Unit) for a little while. He's allowed to leave for a few hours, but he has a curfew of 10pm.

For Father's day, I had made my dads apple pies and Conor had mentioned it to Granddad and he said he wanted one as well, but at that time he was unable to eat anything that wasn't pureed. So I figured I'd make one for July 4th. So the morning of the 4th, I made an apple pie and some corn casserole. We still planned to have chicken, and I would pick that up while Jeff went to get Grand dad and we would meet at his house.

So, I went to Lee's Famous Recipe (where we usually get it from) and ordered one of their family meals. With mashed potatoes, green beans, potato wedges, and biscuits. It took forever to get the food in the first place, and when we got to Grand dad's house and unpacked it, we found that we didn't have any green beans, and they had substituted wheat buns for some of the biscuits. I called to ask about them, if they were out of regular biscuits, I would have preferred to get something else, because the ones they gave us weren't liked by anyone. The manager got on the phone and actually argued with me. She said she remembered us and that she was the one who put the biscuits in the box and that she KNEW that she gave us regular biscuits. So, I took a picture. Although she will never see it, I can't believe she would argue with a customer over something so stupid.

She said if I wanted to drive back to the restaurant, that she would give me some green beans and more biscuits. I told her I couldn't drive back right then, and she offered a credit. After the argument about the biscuits, I was irritated and said, "Don't bother, I won't be back there."

And I won't. One of my biggest pet peeves is poor customer service, and I will not patronize someplace that gives poor customer service.

OK, onto the fun stuff. Jeff and Conor drove to Indiana to buy some fireworks, because the ones you can get in Ohio are kinda lame. They set them all up on the kitchen table for a picture.

Then Jeff told Conor to hold up the rocket he got for free (the nice lady working there gave it to him), and hold up his fist and say "YEAH!" So... he did.

Grand dad spent the majority of the time after we got there in his room playing spades on the computer - he said he misses his computer games. So, we went outside to blow bubbles. Conor got a new bubble blowing machine and we wanted to try it out.

There were some HUGE bubbles blown out of that thing once we got it figured out.

All the kids dressed in Red, White, and Blue.

Teddy even got to go with us, I tried to get a picture of him and Ceara, but he kept looking away. I'd get his attention, then he'd look away right as I snapped the picture.

Then he stuck his tongue out at me! Jerk. ;)

I finally got his attention and got a good shot of him. He spent most of the time hiding from the fireworks, but wouldn't go inside because he wanted to be outside with us.

It finally got dark enough for the fireworks and we let them off. They are really hard to take pictures of. =\

Conor and Ceara trying to light their sparklers off of each others. They kept going out though.

We kinda rushed them along so that Grand dad could see them before he had to go back for his curfew. And I just realized today that I didn't get any pictures of Grand dad or my mom - who joined us for the evening.

After Jeff left to take Grand dad back, we cleaned up our mess and went home. It was a fun evening with the kids though.

Hope everyone had a good Forth of July! Oh, and I took pictures of making the apple pie and corn casserole, and will hopefully get some posts up here about that before too long. :)