4th of July

Oops--in all of my catching up I completely missed the 4th of July.

It was actually a pretty low-key day. Every three weeks Matt plays with the worship band at church and is gone for half the weekend. It just so happened that his most recent weekend was the 4th of July, which was a Sunday. So Ben and I tooled around the house for the morning. It was gloomy, so my beach plan fizzled. I actually don't even really remember what we did. I think we made cookies. We were going to go to visit my mom and step-dad at the Newport Dunes after Matt came home and Ben napped, but it ended up being crazy crowded, and if I remember correctly I had a little stomach bug that was rendering me lame, tired, and grouchy. But we got invited to the same neighborhood party we crashed last year, so at the last minute we decided to hit that instead. We brought along our neighbors, who also didn't have much going on. We probably had a smidge more fun than last year, partly because we were more prepared, partly because we knew more people, and partly because our offspring was old enough to actually participate a little in the festivities. There may also have been a Moscow Mule involved.

There was, of course, great food, the talent show, and the marshmallow war.

There was also a bounce house. It was there last year, but since we had a non-ambulatory almost-one-year-old it went untouched by our little family. This year we set the T-rex loose for his first bounce house experience. I'm pretty sure he never would have gotten out if we hadn't eventually forced him so he could eat dinner and participate in the other activities.

We also stayed longer this time so that we could enjoy the home-made fireworks show. It was pretty fun, albeit long. The dads set up some ladders and light things on fire--sounds about right--while the kids ooh-ed and aah-ed and the moms prayed that their husbands and children would not burst into flames. Adalee was genuinely worried about Matt, who was helping with the fireworks. Ben was half-asleep.

Happy Signing of the Declaration of Independence Day, United States!