"Uncle Kurt" and "Uncle Brent" supervised this evening.  Little kids walked up and said: "Can I shoot a bottle rocket?"  "Sure you can," we answered.  Their parents looked on, smiling.  The rockets were lit and dropped into a PVC tube sealed on one end with duct tape.  Out shot the rocket, soaring into the air.  Bang!  It exploded and the child would smile.  Drew danced when he fired the bottle rocket into the air.  I smiled that time.  "How do you throw them," Drew asked.  I showed him and little Timmy and Will and the other kids.  They delighted in the skill and the timing and the celebration. 

Then the big stuff came out.  Henry dragged the rockets from inside the house.  "Fire in the hole!" we yelled as we lit the fuse and ran away.  The missiles fired and exploded in the sky.  What an evening. 

As I type this, Henry showed up with the goodies he held back.  "Tomorrow's the 4th of July.  That's when we'll shoot these off."