Yesterday was a good day. The Archbold’s did the 4th of July up right. All five children wore red, white and blue to Church. We sang “God Bless America” at the top of our lungs. We played outside while listening to country music on the radio and I barbecued hot dogs and burgers on the grill and didn’t even burn them (a lot.)

We ate inside because there were so many bugs flying around that with a concerted effort they could’ve carried away the two year old girl by her pigtails. As the sun set at the end of the day my wife and I debated taking the children back outside to watch the fireworks. That means I wanted us all to go out to the local high school to watch the fireworks and my wife thought the children were too tired from a long weekend. The problem is that most of the kids go to bed by 8 and it doesn’t get really dark until 9 p.m. We compromised by agreeing that we’d all go in the backyard and watch the fireworks from there.

My wife handed out drinks for everyone and we sat on lawn chairs while the children positioned themselves all over the swingset in the backyard. It was quite beautiful with the sun was setting and we waited for the fireworks.

Things went downhill from there. Continue reading at the National Catholic Register>>>