Happy Fourteenth of July!

I'm only a little behind. 'Tis the story of my life, y'all. Similarly, we never really got our act together in coming up with plans to celebrate the 4th. As a result, we decided to stay at home and  have a low-key holiday, just the three of us.

 

So the husband fired up the fancy grill and made us some hot dogs.

 

Lily and I put up a handful of patriotic decorations, complete with Patriotic Kitteh. 

 

Then Lily was ready to celebrate a birthday party and she just wanted to know whose birthday it was. So I tried to keep it simple, "It's not a birthday party, Lily. It's a holiday, a special day to celebrate."

 

Hmm. That didn't go over well. So I went with, "Well, it is our country's birthday." Yeah, that didn't go over so well, either.

 

So she sang happy birthday to herself. Problem solved. 

 

And nothing says Independence Day quite like some Rooster Sauce on a hot dog. 

 

Then Lily decided to help Kitty have some hot dog, too.

 

And eventually she gave up and went back to filling her face with raspberries and blueberries.

 

After dinner, to fill the time before fireworks, we decided to have indoor fireworks -- silly string. Earlier in the day, when I imagined how the silly string game would work, I kind of just pictured us spraying randomly. Possibly it was because I positioned myself opposite them so I could take pictures, but it quickly became a fight. Me against them.

Ready? Aim... (and note Kitty in the background)

 

Fire!

 

Uh, you missed me. 

 

Don't worry. I shot back. 

 

And I didn't miss. 

 

And as it goes with Silly String, about 30 seconds later,   it was time to clean up our superfun mess. 

 

Party Kitteh. (Don't call PETA. She had that on her for almost one whole second, and then she went back to her pampered life. She's fine.) 

Soon enough, it was time to shoot off the tiny fireworks we had. And I was ready. I did my Google homework: ISO low, shutter speed low, aperture high, tripod. Got it. This time, I'm finally going to take a decent picture of fireworks. 

Nope. All I ended up with was a hot mess and some bug bites. GAH, fireworks! WTH am I doing wrong?

 

What is this?

 

This is actually the best shot of the lot. Sigh.

 

But wait! We had sparklers. I get a second try. 

And, fail.

 

But I did learn how to make a ghost, though. So all in all, that's not a bad way to end a pretty dang good holiday.