Happy Independence Day?

I am pretty sure there's a joke about what Canadians call the fourth of July, but I can't remember it now.

We had a lazy day. Megan saw a tshirt project on Pinterest and wanted to do it, so I bought the supplies and she had a blast spray painting.

They also decided they needed to spray paint the fence, since we're getting it fixed. Eventually.

I didn't take pictures of the movie we went to see, or of swimming at the pool. But we did head out to Bradley Fair across town for a picnic and fireworks, and I did snap a couple there.

They're reading and talking about Paradise Lost. Yes. You did read that right.

Alison, for whom there is very little she won't put ketchup on.

 Waiting in the (very long) line for ice cream.

Playing catch.

We really didn't do anything exciting. But it was nice to lay back and be lazy and it was a wonderful evening to be out celebrating.

Independence Day 2012

First, we went to Lake Afton. (Well, first FIRST, we were LAZY. And bought fireworks.)

We were a bit crazy out in the "deep" end.

How Kristen preferred to play in the lake. She was a bit bothered that she couldn't see the bottom.

Then we ate ice cream at Braums. And we came home and watched Tintin. And ate brats and dogs (which are All-American, right?). And then we lit off our own fireworks!

Yes, she really was that anxious about holding a sparkler.

It was a lot of fun!

Great Eastern Adventure Day 10: Lexington and Concord

In order, our day included:

Swimming (in which we all managed to be in the pool at the same time, and probably scared all the rest of the people off)

Canoeing to the Old North Bridge (in which we really enjoyed the trip to the bridge and sweated through the trip back to the rental place)


Grandpa's there on the far left, taking a picture of us...


Lunch (in which we eat and play and rip a pair of shorts)

Minuteman Visitors Center (in which we watch a really cool movie/multimedia presentation)


Orchard House (in which we get a personalized tour and realize what an absolute feminist Louisa May was)


(We're going to pretend this was the bench we took our Christmas picture on 13 years ago...)

Old North Bridge (in which Alison had a meltdown because they didn't have a souvenir penny machine, which has been her souvenir of choice this trip) again

Walden Pond (in which we walk the long way to the house site, and then drool at all the people in the pond -- it's a lake! -- swimming)




Eat dinner and play with cousins (and above mentioned shorts gets fixed; thank you Aunt Jessica!)

Crash.

(I need to remember that I'm not 20 years old anymore. My body reminds me of that fact when my brain decides to do too much!)

Happy 4th!

Summer Adventure #4 (Dallas)

Things we did in Dallas on the 4th of July

• (stayed up too late the night before... Russell and Scott went to a concert and didn't get in until 2 a.m. The girls didn't go to bed until 11:30 p.m.!)

• Hung out with Russell's friend Scott, who was wonderful and let us crash at his house (and the girls play with his kids' toys).

• Went to the Nascher Sculpture Center and participated in a First Saturday kids event, which included a scavenger hunt,

A community puzzle, where everyone drew their own pieces,



(Megan organized the puzzle. Yes, she is our daughter.)

I even drew something, because I remembered what Mo said...


And an artist presentation.

Caitlyn had a grand time with that, and got chosen to help the artist mix the plaster.

• Ate lunch in a parking garage.

• Went to the Dallas Museum of Art, wandered around a while (our favorite collections was the "house" -- they have it set up like a villa in the French Riviera, and its full of furniture and art... it was a lot of fun), and ended up in the kids center for a while.
  

• Went to an enormous Korean grocery store and stocked up on supplies (can you say "years supply of soy sauce and go chu jong and seaweed"? Plus kimchee, asian pears and enormous grapefruit!)

• And ate at Eskimo Joe's, which is not in Dallas but is in Stillwater, Oklahoma. It's much like the Hard Rock Cafe: you eat there to say you ate there (and possibly buy a t-shirt), not because the food is good. Cool building though.
  

Maybe next time, we'll do more.

Happy 4th!

We had a whopper of a day! It started early with the breakfast at the church -- which was more snacks than anything else -- and a flag raising ceremony. The girls had friends over for a bit, and then we went to the bishop's house for a BBQ (forgot the camera). It was BYO meat, but he made grilled pineapple for everyone (interesting -- warm pineapple with cinnamon) and I had many takers for the tried-and-true-but-my-family-won't-eat-it Patriotic Pie. The girls got incredibly dirty playing in the sand, and I'm not sure Alison ate much besides one hot dog and one brownie (this is important for later!). After that, we went swimming (pools were free!)...

both Alison and Kristen crashed when we got home. A couple hours later, Alison woke up with a screaming headache (literally), and I gave her some medicine before I remembered she'd had food. I managed to get some peaches down her, but those came back up. We did it right: got her some 7-up, and saltines and a cold washcloth and she felt better after a little while. Which is a good thing, because she desperately wanted to go see fireworks.

Thankfully, she was feeling up to it, so we piled in the car around 9:20 and drove to the Exploration Place, found a place to park (it was packed), crossed the street, climbed the hill and enjoyed a very nice view of the fireworks at the ballpark. Not super-great, but good enough. Alison and Kristen both loved it. And aside from a trip to an obliging tree (for both Caitlyn and Alison), it was uneventful. We got home at a reasonable hour (only 10:40!) and everyone crashed. What a day!!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great day yesterday. We went to the breakfast at the church, Caitlyn had make-up swimming lessons (it wasn't raining!), we bought a flag and some flowers, we ate lunch, we went to the pool, we went out to eat (didn't feel like making burgers by ourselves, and you HAVE to have burgers for Independence Day), and then it started raining. Bleh. No fireworks. So, to make ourselves feel better, we recounted all the times it's rained over the years. Every three years since 2000, which is kind of interesting. Anyway. It was a fun day, nonetheless.

Here are some pictures from the pool. More are over at Flickr.