Happy Birthday America and Brecken Boy PART 2

This year we decided to celebrate Brecken's birthday on the 4th. I really didn't want to turn around days later and invite all of the same people over for yet another BBQ. Why not combine them both. I can see later on in his life where he might want them seperate but for now... I also wanted to totally live up the 4th of July theme this year since I can. Each year's theme from here on out will be Brecken driven.

We had a yummy BBQ of chicken and hot dogs and then everyone brought yummy side dishes. I love our potluck get togethers. We are never lacking good food and lots of it. Heidi and Ren never fail with the cake. I really wanted to do a firecracker type cake. I was thinking really simple rectangle with a smash type cake as the flame. They totally took it a step farther and it was huge.

We served the yellow portion of the cake and was still left with the sides. Everyone even had generous pieces with icecream.
As we began singing, Brecken realized that it was all for him and presented this huge grin across his face. He is such a sweet little boy.

He was allowed to go for the yellow cake and decided to just gingerly reach for the cake and take a little frosting. After we dished up a piece and fed it to him, he was in heaven. He loved it and wanted more and more.



Everybody was very generous and brought Brecken some pretty nice things. I can always count on my great aunt Nancy to bring clothes for my boys and I love it! Once it started to get dark we headed up the hill to an awesome undeveloped culdesac to light off fireworks and watch firework shows around the valley. It was really fun and nice until we started getting eaten alive from mosquitoes. It was really bad. We ran out of bug spray. Only a couple people were fully protected. The rest of us were bait. We had to get out of there and we learned our lesson for next year. We were able to light of sparklers and fountains before it got really bad. I never, ever buy fireworks. They scare me for the most part. I don't go run and hide but I am so nervous around them but it was Brecken's birthday so I bought a few. I asked the people what the most kid friendly fountains were and they told me and that is what I bought. I think my fear sparked from years ago in my youth. We were at my grandma Arnold's house one 4th of July and my dad decided to have a show for us. My dad loves fireworks so there were alot. At least that is what it seemed. He had spinning ones nailed to trees. He had them on the ground. He had them, what it seemed, on everything and they were all going off at once. I ran inside and watched peeking out the window underneath a blanket. Anyway, we headed back before the finale of the Caldwell Show because the bugs were so bad.
We were so exhausted and worn out by the end of the night. However it would not be a night without a pop explosion. I had extra rootbeer that I stuck in a reusable grocery bag. As I went to sit it on the bar stool in my mom's kitchen it slipped to the floor. No big deal right...wrong! The thing exploded! It was crazy. At first I had no idea what really happened. It was still in the bag but then pretty soon pop was shooting out across the floor because the bottle was on its side. It wouldn't stop. Well. finally it did but it felt like a long time. We had to clean up sticky pop everywhere. It was on the walls, doors, underneath the pantry door somehow, just plain everywhere and that stuff is sticky. My uncle used to work for Coca Cola and he said rootbeer is one of the worst as far as stickiness. Eventually we got that under control and we were able to go home and call it another holiday and birthday well celebrated.

Happy Birthday my sweet Brecken boy. Our family life would not be quite the same without you. You are definitely a bright spot in our family.