WEEK OF THE 4TH

I realized this week that I have a major complex.  I expect and desire to be doing something fun and/or cool for every major holiday and/or event.  And, when my plans seem a little lackluster, I slip into a minor pity party for myself.  This year, we fought the urge to make major plans or host anything.  We simply had a day mostly to ourselves, and John worked a little this evening.  It was nice.  It was low-key.  We need that right now.

The kids were outfitted by Gran-Gran for the occasion, and I managed to bribe them into taking this jewel of a picture.  (It is amazing what a freshly iced sugar cookie in their color of choice will produce.)



The biggest thing we did was head to our neighborhood parade, which turned out to be festive and fun.

Our family won the "stroller" category once they determined that we had the most kids in strollers.  Spenst family for the Win!

(I don't know why I am making that face.  It felt right at the moment.  Clearly, it was wrong.)

It was their first 4th of July!  Hooray!

We hit up Cracker Barrel for lunch, which feels very American.  We skipped out on the fireworks again this year.  Though we have been willing to take our kids to Asia, we have yet to venture to big-time fireworks.  Today as we thought through it, we determined that it would likely be fun for 1 out of 4 children, but we would all have to pay for it with a late bed-time and the hassle of getting to and from them.  Hopefully next year we will take the plunge - I have missed going to a big show.

Other fun this week has included a Firework craft that I saw on this friend's blog, and it was a big hit at our house, though Bella didn't last real long.



(That's mine.)

We also had a picnic dinner with friends that ended with me mysteriously having Violet's poop all over my back-side.  I will spare ya'll the picture that John did take while he was cleaning it off.  It was delightful before that moment due to the weather perfection and wonderful company.




I hope that your 4th was whatever you hoped it would be.  Mine was better than I had thought it would be, and I am learning the valuable lesson of slowing down a teeny teeny teeny (as Bella would say) bit. I have so much to learn about really resting and not feeling like I always need to be making some sort of amazing fun.