Our 4th...

I hope you all had a wonderful Independence Day. Ours was good as we spent our time at home together. It was just too hot to do anything else.
We had BBQ chicken, corn on the cob, and mac & cheese for dinner that hubby grilled for us which was delicious. Then we all took our baths/showers, and sat down to watch cartoons with the boys.
We were hoping by 10pm things would have cooled off a bit as we had plans to go watch the fireworks, but boy were we ever wrong. Nothing cooled off even a degree! It was horrible and didn't make for the best outing. There was NO breeze in the slightest, there was heat lightening, and it was just muggy! I don't remember a hotter 4th of July.
Also might I add that trying to keep a 4 year old and a 1 1/2 year old up until 10:00pm to watch fireworks is not an easy task.
They were of course grumpy even though Lucas told me he wouldn't go to bed until he got to see the fireworks since I had promised him. But when we got there the place was SO packed. EVERYONE from town was sitting out on the sidewalks, parking lots, etc. Traffic was horrible and we couldn't get a good spot.
Then by the time the fireworks started at 10:15pm we were all pouring sweat, and the boys were becoming even more grumpy. They stayed amused in the fireworks for about 5 minutes before they wanted to explore our surrounding area and kept trying to take off. Lucas found a pile of rocks which he proceeded to throw down a hill despite us telling him no, and Levi was a bundle of squirms and fussing and kept trying to get out of his clothes.
Levi is in that phase right now where he just does not want to wear a diaper and will strip completely down if given an opportunity. I guess last night was no exception and he really wanted to celebrate his freedom. haha
But luckily we kept him from doing that and tried our best to keep him interested in the firework display.
When we offered to hold them and lift them up so they could see the fireworks better they decided to play the "pass around" game. I'm sure all you mom's and dad's out there know that one. They want the mom to hold them, then the dad, then the mom, and so forth and so on.
We tried to make the best of it and keep them interested still, but at 10:45pm we were all done and just ready to go home. It was time to leave. We didn't even stay for the grand finale, and I'm sorry to say I had absolutely no time to take pics. It was all I could do to keep an eye on the boys.
We loaded the kids in the car, and I blasted the A/C all the way home. I have never been so grateful to have A/C in my car! It just felt SO wonderful!
Thankfully the kids were asleep by the time we got home so we just carried them in and put them in their beds.
My husband thinks they were kind of too young to go watch fireworks, but I really didn't want them to miss out on it even though they didn't really pay much attention to it.
I always looked forward to fireworks as a little girl and we would always go watch them and lay a blanket on the hood of the car staring into the sky. Of course I think I was around 5 years old at the time, but as far back as I can remember we have always went to see the fireworks.

What age would you recommend taking children to see fireworks? How did you spend your holiday?