The city of Olathe doesn’t allow fireworks. People still do, but it limits the fun a bit. That’s why we loved going to Nebraska and having a huge firework display and doing our own right from Grandpa’s drive way. Ever since Grandma and Grandpa Terry moved to Olathe we have been anticipating a July 4th celebration at our new house! Our house is not considered inside city limits so we can light off whatever we want. Last year we lit of fireworks on the road but we didn’t have a house yet. This year we had the house!
It is always such an awesome holiday. It really is one of my favorites. It is low key and minimal prep. The point is to just relax, eat and light off fireworks. For the past few years at some point during the summer we go with Terry cousins and spend the day at World’s and Ocean’s of Fun Amusement park. Last year we didn’t go because we had a family reunion at Branson and everyone went to Silver Dollar City together instead. This year my kids were really looking forward to it and the day that worked out was July 3rd. I was a little nervous in anticipation of the heat but it ended up being a great day. It was overcast so not blistering sun and humidity but still warm enough to swim. Everyone was tall enough to go on every single ride if they wanted too for the first time too! Jovee is one of the biggest roller coaster junkies in the group and up until this year there was always one or two off limits due to height for her. Emilee has had a little anxiety about a few roller coasters since going on one when she was really young that she probably shouldn’t have. Height wise she has always been as tall as kids several years older than her. She was trying to talk herself into doing the Patriot. We got in line the first time and then when it was our turn she couldn’t do it. We watched everyone else go and then she decided she would give it another shot and the second time it was our turn she did it. She loved it and was much more relaxed about going on the rest of the rides after that. Leah is not a big roller coaster fan but for Allison’s birthday she said she would go on any ride Allison wanted her to go on with her. It was a great day. We hit all the rides we wanted then ate lunch and went to the water park side. After they were all done there we headed home with a stop at chick-fil-a on the way.
The next day we had a BBQ at our place with all the KC family and my friend Dani came with her son Ethan. We played games, ate food, went and got fireworks, set of the day time ones and then repeated it all until it was dark enough to do the night time ones. We had one small incident. The kids were lighting off smoke bombs and bottle rockets and things like that. The three youngest kids like to light smoke bombs and run through the smoke. They lit what they thought was a smoke bomb and it was but it had some firework stuff in it too. So they were all standing around it and ready to start running in the smoke and it started shooting out whistlers at them. They ran pretty quick. Luckily no one was hurt. It was a good lesson to read the entire description and always stand back even if you think it is just a smoke bomb. Other than that is was just a fun time. We topped the day off with strawberry short cake and it was another successful Fourth of July!