July 4th--2013 version

Just so you know... even though my last substantial blog post was last year's 4th of July party, I have not forgotten how this thing works!

 

So lets get on with a run down of the Lafitte/Netz/Carrigan/Roberts/Marshall 4th of July Extravagaza!

 

Every good part starts with the food.

 While we were waiting for the grill, we worked on this year's t-shirt project.  Our project this year involved crayons, sand paper and an iron.

 Buster acted as grill master/chit-chatter. 

 Our first minute to win it game was for the guys.  I was called:
"See who can thaw out and put on a t-shirt that has been frozen in an ice block". 
I made the mistake of stating the there were no rules to this game.  This is Chaston attempting to smash and destroy his way through the ice.

 Lydon was going to pick his way to his shirt.

 Aaron was ultimately the winner.  He ran his shirt under 5 bazillion gallons of hot water.  His prize for winning this game?  He will be paying my city water bill this month for wasting all that hot water!

 This is the rest of us sitting around while Buster was in the house microwaving his shirt.  Boyd tried to grill his shirt.

 And Brennon and Chaston finally destroyed their way through their ice block.

 Each year we have divided the gang up into two teams and had them create a 4th of July character out of newspaper and a roll of masking tape.  We have done Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty in years past.  This year........the bald eagle.

Team Red:  mapping out their plan

 Team blue:  not wasting any time mapping out a stinkin' plan.

 And then things got all serious up in here when Yo Bob threw down and went to work with a pair of scissors and some newspaper for the red team

 Carol worked the side lines and finished work on the shirts while the hilarity ensued.

 But no matter how much Yo Bob contributed to the red team, nothing could beat the awesomeness of this:

 Contrats Blue Team!

 And as crowning Miss Congeniality....

 The Red Team.

 After a minor delay that was brought to us by Kiazer the dog in the minute to win it pool, we moved on to game #2.

 Tiff vs. Lydon in the marble pick up with your toes game.

 Tiff now has the new nick name of monkey feet because that girl can pick up marbles in record time!!  Lydon didn't stand a chance.  Even Kiazer had to come back to check out the action.

 Game #3  Stacking cans on a paper plate that is floating in a bowl of water.  You would think that the logical child would understand that stacking the cans would mean standing one can on top of the other.  But not to Aaron and Brennon.  Check out how each of theme interpreted "stacking".

 After a re-read of the rules and a re-start of the minute to win it clock, Aaron was declared the winner (even with the wind blowing)

 Our last game involved Casuree, Nate, Frisbees and aiming at water bottles. 

 It was not as easy as it sounds and after a couple of rounds of six Frisbees each, Nate was finally able to hit ONE (I repeat, Nate hit ONE) bottle.

 The sun started to go down so we had to wind the festivities down with our food craft.  This year we created mini fruit pizzas in patriot colors of red (strawberries) gold (pineapple) and blue (blueberries).

 We also had one more craft.  We made popper launchers out of toilet paper rolls and balloons but it looks like we did not get any photographic evidence of the launchers. 

We concluded our evening with a delightful fireworks show by Chaston, Brennon and Aaron before finally settling in an watching.........

THE BIG ONES!!!!