July 4th 2022

Two Weeks earlier

"Jane, are you sure you want to take Kate with you to pick out the fireworks? The fireworks stands are just opening. You have plenty of time to get the fireworks." Maura asked Jane as soon as Jane informed her that she wanted to take Kate with her this year. Last year she had taken the twins with her and she had to get two of everything she bought.

"Yes, she said she wanted to help me pick out the fireworks. I'm trying to let her do things that she wants, like we discussed. I realize that she is almost four years old but she is a very bright young lady, kinda like her beautiful mother. Kate told me after you helped her plant her butterfly garden, that she wants to help me pick out the fireworks this year. She wants to make sure we have plenty of snakes. She heard MJ and AJ talking about the snakes and she wanted to pick them out. She did her research and wants to have multiple colors of snakes. I don't know what type of research she did, but she told me she did her research."

"I'm sure she looked on the Internet. I can't believe MJ showed her how to look things up on the Internet. I didn't realize he did that until he told me today when I asked him how Kate knew so much about fireworks and snakes."

MJ, AJ, Lilly and Kate made a special spot in the backyard to build a castle for the snakes. They had talked for days about how it should be built so that the snakes could grow and cover all the steps to the top of the castle. It was like four little engineers working hard on a project. Jane and Maura thought they were just playing together, like they often did. They had no idea they were contemplating such a huge project.

MJ had printed out all the specs for the castle. AJ and Lilly had gathered all the supplies that would be needed. Kate was looking over the plans, the blue print of their project, to make sure everything was to her liking. This had been her idea and MJ thought it was brilliant. He was proud of his younger sister.

When everyone arrived for the fourth of July family BBQ, all the cousins gathered in the backyard. MJ went over the plan with everyone and everyone agreed with the plan, all eight of them. They agreed that TJ as the oldest would light the snakes at the given time.

They figured it would take them over an hour to place all the snakes. Snakes were unpredictable, so they had backup snakes ready to be placed in position in case any snakes went off course. Each of the eight children had a handful of snakes to make this castle colorful. This was the biggest project they had ever undertaken without their parent's knowledge.

Their parents were so wrapped up in talking and the food preparations that they were not worried about why the children were all huddled up together at the table in the backyard. Young minds were hard at work checking over all of the plan. They were using quite a few snakes, it should work, Kate thought. She wondered though if some of the snakes might crash into one another and cause them to go off course. This was going to be one messy castle of colored snakes.

They were all having fun setting up the snakes and strings that would tie them together so they would be lit in a domino effect once the first snake was lit. The children were looking forward to when they could light the castle of snakes. MJ asked if they should use sparklers at the columns of the towers. Kate liked the idea, she was smiling. She loved her big brother so much.

Kate couldn't keep her excitement to herself. She ran up to Jane, "Mama, Mama, I have something to show you."

"What is it little one?" Jane said as she smiled at Kate.

"Come with me, I want to show you." Kate grabbed Jane's hand and waited for her to stand up so she could take her outside. As Jane stood, she looked over at Maura who smiled at her, knowing Kate loved to show her mama her accomplishments. Kate led Jane outside to the castle.

"Oh my God Kate, this is a wonderful surprise. How long did it take you guys to put this together?"

"We have been putting it together for an hour. MJ, AJ and Lilly helped me plan it and my cousins helped build it. I wanted to ask you but I wanted to surprise you."

"Well, I am surprised. It is beautiful. How long do you think it will take before the top snake is lit?" Jane asked as Maura approached her, wrapping her arms around her from behind.

"Less than ten minutes." MJ stated as he walked up on the conversation. "This was her idea. She wanted to build a snake castle. She thought it would be fun. We have been working on the plan for weeks." MJ continued. "That is why she wanted to go shop for fireworks with you mama. She wanted to make sure we had enough snakes for the castle."

"Well, I believe we purchased tons of snakes, so you should have enough." Jane said as she pulled Kate in for a hug. "This is quite the project little one. How did you think of this?"

"I saw it in my dreams, just like I did my butterfly garden." Kate explained matter-of-factly like her mama should have known that already.

"You envisioned this?" Maura asked a little surprised at the detail of the plan.

"Yes, mommy. I told MJ about my dream and we drew this so we could bring my vision, as you called it, to life. You and mama always tell us to follow through with things and think them out so that is what we did." Kate said as she smiled at her mothers.

"Well, little one, I can't wait to see how the snakes perform. What time do you want to set this off?" Jane asked so she could fit it into the schedule.

"Can we do it as soon as it starts getting dark? We can really see the colors and the smoke then, if we do it in the day light, we might lose some of the colors." MJ asked and explained.

"Sure, we can do the snake castle first and then the fireworks." Jane stated.

"Perfect. I'm going to go play now, bye." Kate said as she ran off not waiting for a response from anyone.

"I'm going to go play also." MJ stated as he waited for an acknowledgement from his mothers. He hugged them both and then ran off after Kate. They weren't going to eat for a little while yet so the children all decided to go swimming. Jane told Maura, "I'm going to go in the pool with the children. Tommy and Chloe are in charge of cooking this year, why don't you join us?"

Jane smiled when Maura said, "That sounds like an excellent idea. Everything is ready so why not?" They both had their swimsuits on already so they took off their outer garments and joined the children in the pool.

When Kate saw her mama she said, "Mama, can I climb up on your shoulders and then you can throw me like you used to do?"

Maura hated when Jane did that but Kate loved it and Jane was conflicted. She wanted to please both of her ladies. She looked over at Maura and gave her that look that Maura couldn't say no to and Maura nodded that it was okay. Kate climbed upon Jane's shoulders and Jane had her stand up and then she grabbed her and threw her into the water. Kate screamed with excitement, she was so happy. "Let's do that again mama!" Kate exclaimed as she climbed back on Jane's shoulders.

Everyone played in the water for about an hour before Chloe announced the lunch was ready. They got out and dried off and then ate. Tommy and Chloe had cooked hot dogs, hamburgers and a few steaks. Jane of course, had to have a steak, she loved steak. After they ate their lunch and cleaned up, they prepped the fireworks. The family went on to play games until it started to get dark.

Kate got excited as soon as it got dark, as it was now time to light the snake castle. She hoped this worked. She had dreamed about it several times and when she discussed everything with MJ, he made a few modifications to the plan.

TJ lit the bottom row of snakes and the snake castle started coming to life. MJ helped Kate light the sparklers on the towers of the castle. Frankie was filming the children. It was so colorful. Kate had a huge smile on her face. She was clapping her hands together. Jane was standing right behind her and Kate backed up until she was leaning against her mama. Jane kneeled down and asked Kate if she wanted to be on Jane's shoulders and she said yes. Jane quickly picked her up and put her on her shoulders than Maura leaned into Jane's side. Kate reached down and put a hand on Maura's shoulder. Maura covered Kate's hand with hers and smiled.

There were red, blue, black and gray snakes lighting up the steps of the castle. It was beautiful. The carefully placed strings under the snakes worked fine from step to step. It was working just as Kate had envisioned.

In less than ten minutes the snake castle was just a mess of colored ash, but Kate enjoyed it while it lasted and Uncle Frankie was showing her the instant replay as the first of the fireworks exploded in the sky. Her cousins were holding sparklers and lighting up other snakes. Everybody was enjoying themselves. In a few minutes they would be able to see the city's fireworks high in the sky by looking over the well-trimmed trees in the backyard.

After the children ran out of snakes, they set up their chairs to watch the fireworks in the sky. It was almost 10 PM and Kate was getting tired. Jane had moved her so she was resting with her head on her shoulder. Jane sat down next to Maura in the lounge chairs to watch the fireworks.

Kate curled up on her chest and reached a hand over to her mommy. Maura held her hand on Jane's shoulder and leaned her head onto Jane's shoulder so Kate's forehead was touching her cheek. Kate was fading fast.

Frankie had repositioned the video camera so he could tape the fireworks. He knew Kate would want to see it tomorrow. He loved Kate's personality, he thought she was so cute. He could always see how much Kate loved his big sister. When Kate was with Jane, she turned all of her attention to her mommy just like her mama did. Frankie thought it was adorable. Kate loved both of her mothers so much. She was so much like Jane.

At the finale of the fireworks everybody gathered up their children and got ready to depart. It had been a long fun day for the children. The twins had already gone up and went to bed. Jane and Maura said goodnight to everyone. When Jane shut the door, she followed MJ and Maura upstairs. Jane still had Kate in her arms. She put Kate down in her bed and kissed her goodnight. They both kissed MJ goodnight and then went to check on the twins who were fast asleep already.

Jane and Maura went to their room and quickly prepared for bed. They were exhausted. They fell asleep quickly and when they awoke in the morning Kate was in between them. Jane just smiled. She leaned over and kissed Maura and told her, "We have company in our bed."

Maura looked down and saw Kate sleeping between them and just hugged the two of them and closed her eyes. They could sleep in until the other children woke up and came and got them.