First Fireworks Show

First Fireworks Show

Cooper excitedly waiting for the fireworks.
Cooper excitedly waiting for the fireworks.

There has been a dearth of fireworks in our lives since having kids. Something has always prevented us from venturing out with our kids to one of the big shows on the 4th of July (rain, fire bans, a deep love for bedtime, etc). We decided this year was the year we finally introduced our children to the great American tradition of pyrotechnics. (Technically, we did take Cooper to see an impressive Cherry Blossom festival fireworks show on the Mall during our month in Washington DC, but he doesn’t remember that and we were also somewhat far away.) Every year the fancy golf course excuse me, country club in the neighborhood has a fireworks display for their members. The great thing about fireworks though, is it’s hard to keep them private. Our church building happens to be right across the street from the course which made for a perfect viewing area.

Ellen running SO fast.
Ellen running SO fast.

The kids were so excited, talking non-stop about the fireworks as we set up our chairs. Ellen carried on long conversations with perfect strangers and Cooper snarfed all of his friend’s popcorn. It was a fairly windy night so they kept sending up test fireworks with 10-15 minute waits in between. We were starting to wonder if they were going to just cancel the entire show when they lit up a ton of fireworks. (I think they accelerated the show to try and get as much lit as they could during a calm stretch.) We’d tried to prep the kids for what the fireworks would be like (telling them they’d be loud, showing them youtube videos of fireworks), but when the real thing happened they were terrified. Ellen buried her head into Noel’s shoulder and I literally thought Cooper might break me in half with how tight his thighs were squeezing me. We tried to calm them down, but Cooper was especially frantic and we ended up taking both kids to the car. Once they were safe in their carseats they actually didn’t mind the fireworks as much. Introducing them to fireworks in a slightly more low-key environment was a good move with our sensitive kids. I’m just glad we didn’t take them to the city fireworks were there would have been a lot more people and our car would have been much farther away.

One thought on “First Fireworks Show

  1. Poor kids! Glad you had a car nearby. We have not consistently watched fireworks since having kids, but one year we did go to a friend’s house where we could view them. Caleb was three, (almost four) sitting on Brady’s lap and getting antsy waiting. Brady, trying to get him excited for what was coming, said, “Caleb, in a few minutes I think you are going to be blown away.” Pause. “Dad…I don’t want to get blown away.” It was an appropriate concern, especially with fireworks! But we were a safe distance away and he liked them.

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