Independence Day Open House

We decided to host a bbq for the 4th of July this year and coordinate it with our Open House.  We were pretty sure we would have a view of the fireworks down town from the balcony and the windows in the attic. We set the party to start at noon and continue through 9 pm.
In the hopes of directing people to enter through the original front door to get a better effect for the tour My Little Helper and I lined the walkway with red and blue pinwheels.  My mom recently gave us a 48 star flag that was in amongst my dad's things so I asked Mr. W to drape it from the balcony.  We don't have a wall bracket for our flag pole yet so this worked out rather well. Red, white and blue flowers by the front door with a doormat I couldn't help but purchase at Freddy's.
The yard looked great after all the hard work my uncle m, my mom and her gardener did as a housewarming present.
We had a melting pot menu:

• BBQ pork shoulder
• Frankfurters, bratwursts, and cheddar brats.
• BBQ baked beans (with all the drippings from the meat!)
• Deviled eggs (it's not a summer party without them!)
• German Potato salad (which we didn't end up making because he forgot to put them on my grocery list)
• Caprese pasta salad with fresh mozzarella, pine nuts, basil, and tomatoes
• Guacamole and corn chips
• Hummus and corn chips
• Green salad with cheese on the side
• Watermelon
• Corn on the cobb

• Apple pie (vegan)

• Cupcakes with raspberry and blueberry garnish

The list gets more vegetarian and vegan the further down the list.  I was trying to accommodate our vegan, gluten free, and allium allergy guests. Whew! And that doesn't even include the fickle tastes of children!

We had a nice steady stream of guests coming and going throughout the day. A few families stayed late enough to do some Oregon-legal fire crakers in the street.
Many of them were just smoke bombs.  A police car drove by up the street and paused to watch us.  Then it slowly turned the corner and parked.  I was like, "What?!"  All our fireworks were legal, I couldn't believe he was going to harass us!  Instead he said he saw the kids and decided to stop and give them some stickers. 

He has children and is missing out on them lighting sparklers and stuff. I guess that teaches me that you can't make assumptions, but frankly, ALL of us thought he was pulling over to give us grief.  When he finally left he flashed his lights for the children. 
Baby Boy was SO excited about the fireworks!  He doesn't have a lot of words so it was mostly just him grunting, straining, and pointing at the fireworks. Hysterical!

 I kept trying to cover his ears during the loud ones, but he wanted NONE of that and never seemed to be startled or scared by any of them.  The cutest was his ready pose where he was squatting with his hands on his knees in anticipation like a baseball out fielder.  So darling!
The last of our guests left around 9:30 and Mr. W and I put the boys to bed; so past their bed time!  Then we went up to the attic to watch fireworks after the sun set.  I couldn't believe what an awesome view we have.  There were fireworks going off all over the city!  I must have looked like I was watching a tennis match because I had to keep turning my head back and forth to see them on all sides of us.  Mr. W was beyond amazed at how many people set off their own fireworks and we marveled at how much money people must be spending on these big ones! 
Once the sun was completely set the downtown fireworks started and he and I sat on the balcony together watching them.  It was so special and yet another moment when I'm reminded of how special this house is and how lucky we are to be it's current caretakers.