Independence Day!

This year it was a very small celebration. Pappa Bear, Cubby, Uncle D, his girlfriend S, Grandma and of course myself. Grandma made homemade french fries, burgers, dogs, ribs and a salad. Let's just say we were overstuffed.

My brother, mother and I are very much closet pyromaniacs (I use that term very loosely). We love to light up things and watch 'em burn! ♪ Burn, baby burn... disco inferno... ♫ Wait, where was I... ? Oh yes, back to the Fourth of July... Between my mother and I we spent about $200 on fireworks. This year, I really wanted Cubby to try his first sparkler. Now, I don't recommend this at all to other parents but because I know how overly cautious Cubby is AND the fact I was going to be right there, I didn't worry too much.

At first, he held onto the sparkler and as I was holding his wrist waving it around for him, he decided he wanted no part of it... and I was disappointed. How can MY Cubby NOT want to light up something? Oh well. The show MUST GO ON!!!

Before we start lighting off fireworks, we organize our goods. We start off with smaller things like Ground Blooms, Piccolo Pete's, interspersed with smaller fountains and then work our way up to Mad Dogs, American Spirit and what not. This year's finale was The Molten Pot. I was impressed! New this year and a $20 show piece, I think it was worth every penny. Again, here I am distracted - this isn't what this post is about!

During our spectacular show, Grandma continued to try and give Cubby a sparkler. FINALLY, he caught on! Yay! Only a Mamma Bear can be so proud! Here's a clip:



Can't wait for next year, when we show him how to properly light a firework himself... he he he...

Happy Holidays!

So I finally made the appointment. Yep, the one where I'm supposed to get Cub's one-year photos? Oh, so I'm two months behind and decided, "Let's cram in a family photo and holiday photos too"! WTF was I thinking? We went to the Picture People. This is only our second time. The first time we went there, the girl who did Cub's photos was AWESOME and the pics I thought came out super adorable! When I called hoping to get the same girl, I was informed she no longer worked there! So they gave me an "experienced" photographer this time. Let me just say - I have no idea where her experience came from but it wasn't from posing or taking pictures.

We started off with our "family" photos and was so focused on Cub, she didn't even make note that my necklace clasp was turned around or take note of my head position/body position and whether or not me or my husband were smiling. She kept trying to get him to smile which did not work.

I finally told her it really didn't matter if his hand was in front of his face, if she waited for him to put it down she'd never get a pic! FINALLY she started snapping photos. I was NOT THRILLED with ANY of our family photos. Even Cub's pics were so-so. She had no imagination, offered props but never brought them out and only used two backgrounds the whole time. Some dark colored one and a white background.

THANK GOD I brought my own props for us and Cub or I would have been a sobbing, furious mess. Cub's pics came out OK - he's too cute to NOT want to buy any, but they weren't spectacular. I was very disappointed but at least we got these cute ones, right?

The original was a full color photo - I decided I would test out my amazing Photoshop skills on this one. What do you think?

... and here's his innocent, "I swear I was good!" look. :)