Wednesday, July 04, 2007

o beautiful for spacious skies

Finally the rain has stopped! Now I can quit trying to overdose with brownies and chocolate Oreo milkshakes w/ extra Oreos. Weeks of rainy weather have convinced me that living in Seattle--or any other mostly cloudy place--would be the wrong move for me. So since the sun is out and all is right in my little world, I thought I'd catch everyone up on our 4th of July activities. We did as little as possible, which means it was a perfect holiday.

First the kids missed the neighborhood parade, we slept right through it. As any good parent would, we foresaw the likelihood of our sleeping late and we purposely didn't tell the girls about the parade. If anyone tried to bring up the subject around Tess and Adelle we broke out in show tunes, thereby avoiding any possible disappointment. Quality parenting, what can I say.


when going to the pool seemed too taxing we whipped out the white-trash of water sports, the slip-n-slide.






we had two options for the fireworks...

#1 We could drive 10 miles to a free firework and symphony show. Then, because of parking, be forced to walk a mile with two tired-from-the-slip-n-slide-fest kids. Then stand in line for the over used up-johns at least 4 times due to watermelon consumption.
OR
#2 We could walk two houses down from us, sit on out neighbor's lawn chairs, eat our neighbor's watermelon and fresh picked blueberries, watch our girls play with our neighbor's sparklers, and enjoy the fireworks in peace while our girls sit on our neighbor's laps.
I'm sure you can guess what we did.


By the way, we have a new addition to the family. Above is our sweet 10 year old neighbor who is Tess and Adelle's new big sister. She has been staying with us every Tuesday this summer while her parents--who are some of my favorite people in the world--are at work. We've loved it!

At about 11 pm that night I realized I hadn't made or cooked anything for the 4th. I should have made an apple pie. Then I remembered, I had made cookies on Monday and that should count, although I was too lazy to attempt icing or sprinkles.

Even if my festive domesticity turned out more Napoleon Dynamite than Martha Stewart, the semi-festive cookies did get gobbled up and I even let Tom and the girls have some too.

5 comments:

Dona said...

Sounds like my kind of 4th of July! What was that comment about the slip and slide(?) 'cause we have been aspiring to own an official slip and slide for years. Hmm.

Anonymous said...

Well, now you know why we are elated to have a deep wading pool in our own fence in backyard under our own trees on our own grass with 3 bathrooms to choose from, no waiting necessary, and a freezer full of otter pops. The cookies look great; we will not be cooking one item on the 24th....breakfast at the park, lunch at the park, and pizza from papa murpheys. Oh, I forgot, Papa wanted to make homemade ice cream with the girls. And I saw a slip-n-slide on the lawn of one of the "estates" south of us last week.
See you soon,

Nicole said...

Finally! another post!!! Well, the 4th of July was a well missed holiday by me. There are no festivities or anything here...obviously. haha. well the pictures of the girls are so good (as usual) and those cookies made me hungry. Summer looks like fun!

Thanks for the good advice on my travels and tours to London. I totally agree with you! I am going to do my best to be as non-touristy as possible! Sometimes I even practice my English accent on people when I talk to them on the streets or in restaurants ha ha ha.

I am sorry to report that I don't have a picture of the cage fighter...he left for the states to spend a month touring about 2 weeks after I met him (FORTUNATELY for ME!) So I am gonna be long gone by the time he gets back! I am going back up to visit my friends up there and things, and when I do-I will try and get a picture of this character for you.

I will put more pictures up very soon! Thanks for the encouragement! Love you tons! Send my love to Tom and the Girls!

Anonymous said...

I'm glad the sun came out in Dallas long enough for you to again see the --'o beautiful for spacious skies'! I'm also glad you 4 can be here in Utah to again enjoy 'the Maple mountain majesties'!!! Actually, some of us learned or relearned the words to "America The Beautiful" this 4th of July and then we actually sang it!! along with "God Bless America". Sam Goddard learned (at least the beginning of) "I'm Proud to be an AMerican" and I loved hearing him sing it for me! We took in the big Freedom Festival Parade in Provo and then enjoyed some very significant Colonial Square commemorative activites with people in full colonial attire- ( you know I love it when they dress the part!) Tess & Adelle's slip & slide attire was no doubt much cooler and the action shots you took of them amid splashes & sprinkles were great!
God Bless America & God Bless You !

Anonymous said...

I love looking at your blog and reading your stories. Tess and Adelle are so beautiful! You are such a good active mom with your children. Texas looks so gorgeous and green. It must be nice to have good neighbors. I bet it helps being away from home (Utah). I wish I could have talked to you more at the BBQ, but I was chasing the kids and it didn't help that I was in a bad mood that day :~) Anyway, I enjoy your blog! P.S. Mark still referes to you as, "Pretty Girl". -Amanda Jones