The 4th of July

We had a very good 4th of July weekend, full of all sorts of activities and good weather that we were trying desperately to take advantage of. It was also exhausting, but it was good exhausting.

Pat wasn’t around. He went to go visit his parents, which means that he missed out on all of the fun. He definitely missed out…

Friday night we all meet up downtown for dinner. Then Pat left for the airport and I took the kids to the grocery store. On the way home, I saw that there was a baseball game at the park and Gabe had been asking to watch some older kids play baseball, so we stopped for a free minute so he could watch. It turns out that it was the softball alumni game and he made it about 3/4 of an inning before he was ready to go play at the playground.

Saturday morning we had a birthday party at the park, so we spent a couple of hours playing over there. Two of Gabe’s friends from school that aren’t at school anymore (one moved, one transfered schools) were there and Gabe had a wonderful time hanging out with them again.

We’re headed home for naps before going to Aunt Jan’s house for the fireworks… Also Josy was still wearing his jammies because he had refused to put on his clothes before going to the birthday party and I decided not to fight that battle…

Gabe and I had to make dessert, so naturally he used the dump truck to help.

My silly boys made it all the way until midnight without sleeping. Around 10 I thought about putting Josy down because he was so tired, but I knew that he wouldn’t actually sleep, he’d explore Aunt Jan’s bedroom and he wasn’t actually melting down, so I figured that I’d let him stay up. He had a wonderful time. He played outside in the grass, ate a hot dog, at the chocolate out of his s’more and had a tea party with all of Aunt Jan’s tiny little teaset. When I asked him what he was doing with her teaset, he told me “Cookin”.

To keep himself awake for the last hour, Josy started yelling “Booooooommmmm!” every 8 seconds. It worked. He started awake until halfway through the show. Then he announced “All done.”



Neither of them made it home still awake…



The next morning, we got up early (or at least earlier than any of the kids wanted to be up. It actually wasn’t that early…) to go to church. After church we went straight to the parade. Claudia and her kids were saving us a spot.

After the parade, Gabe wanted to see the whale, so we walked over there. I managed to get some cute kid pictures, and some real life pictures…

By the time we got lunch and got home for naps, everyone was asleep…



I finally woke Josy up and he decided that he needed a hat on to play outside. Silly kid..



My friend Teresa was in town, so she came over for the evening with her daughter and we let all the kids run around crazy outside for a long time. By the time the kids were in bed, it was an hour later than normal, but sometimes that’s how life works when you have friends over.

Monday morning, I had to wake all the kids up again so that we could go fishing! They were clearly very awake and excited about this…

But donuts make everything better.

We ended up with one halibut, but we got a bunch of junk fish, which made for a more fun trip. It’s fun to have at least something in, even if you have to throw it back. And Bella got a four hour nap in…

On our way back, we stopped Gabe off at a friend’s house and took the other two home so Josy could take a nap. Gabe had so much fun at his friends house (they were working on choreographed sword fights to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack!!) that he was wiped out. Completely.

I finally made them take a bath (who had time for baths when you’re having so much fun???) and put them to bed.

Oh, and Josy figured out how to plug in his headphones.

Daycare was closed on Tuesday, so we had another day off just playing. We met up with some friends and played at the beach for about four hours. When we got home, the neighborhood kids were all out playing, so I let Gabe play outside with them until 5:15. Then at 6 he had his first soccer practice. Um, he was a little worn out. He was definitely having trouble staying focused at the practice. At one point he was crabwalking across the field…

I think this is the first time in his life that Gabe has been completely worn out. Usually he is a complete ball of energy and can take anything you throw at him. But yesterday morning, he got up and was so tired that he just sat in the chair for hours. Eventually he laid on the floor and fell asleep at 11am. When was the last time this kid took a morning nap???

It was a really great couple of days. But it was a lot, and it was exhausting for everyone!