July 4th painting with friends and fireworks

It's July 4th and our entire street is closed off for a block party!  Most of the neighbors hang out in their driveway while people come by.  We just did some painting a couple weeks ago, and not everyone was able to finish, so we invited people back to hang out for the rest of the day.

We hung out in the driveway again, and of course we brought out the Lego Mickey mosaic to show off. 

 Ruston is working on Wall-E.  Theresa is finishing up her Mickey and Minnie.  Jacob decided to start a Winnie the Pooh to go with his Eeyore and Tigger that he's already done. 

While they're working on that, I got lunch going.  Charcoal grilled filet mignon turned out amazing!

We also had corn on the cob that was also grilled, plus hawaiian rolls, and pineapple hotdogs.  Mmm.

The Bakers joined us after lunch, and after missing the first painting day, Lacey decided to start a painting.  

 

I started a new painting of my own design.  Genie!

Along with the block party, there is a bike parade.  All the kids on the block have decorated their bikes for the fourth.  Our neighbor brings out an American flag and every recites the Pledge of Allegiance.

Theresa and Ruston even got to be impartial judges to give away prizes for the top 3 bikes.

It's looking good Theresa!

Jacob is always quick to get his paintings done.

Wall-E is coming along nicely.

And look, Wall-E is even helping out with the painting.

We took a quick break for some ice cream.

Here's today's progress for Ruston and Jacob.

Jonathan even got in on the act to help with the background of Lacey's Mickey Mouse.

Then it was time to head over to Steph and Farman's place.  They're having a big get together at their house in PV on the hill.  Jacob made some patriotic rice krispy treats.

And Lacey made some amazing looking chocolate dipped strawberries.

Steph and Farman's neighbor had his own party going on.  He owns a sushi restaurant and brought a sushi chef to his house and they shared some with us.

Another one of their neighbors started shooting off fireworks behind his house.  

Pretty cool.

Here's a panorama I took of the entire city.  It was amazing how many fireworks were going off.  They told us that fireworks go off all night, but we had no idea it would be this many.  Looking across the entire skyline, there were hundreds of different places firing them off.  Check out the huge panorama below.