My sisters and I just spent a week in Washington helping my parents get their home ready to sell.  It was hard work emotionally and physically, but I have to say we did an amazing job.  The house looks great!  And, I think we might just have set the world record for number of trips to Lowes/Home Depot in one week.  I know my family wanted to kill me when I wouldn’t stop working but I tend to go a little crazy when there is a project to be done and a deadline to be met.  And the fact that we had more than one menstruating female in the house at one time also made things a little dicey.  Miraculously we survived and I still  love being with my family.  We always laugh so hard we cry. 

On our way to WA we drove through Mt. Rainier National Park.  I’ve been going there since I was a little girl and it was good to see it again.  It’s one of my favorite places on earth.

Love this one!

We lucked out and got to see the Lakefair fireworks show while we were there.  Possibly for the last time. 

This is my favorite fireworks show, hands down.  The fireworks shooting out over the capital building and echoing throughout the dome makes it one of a kind.  

The Breakfast of Champions
One other highlight of the trip, pathetic though it may be, was eating ice cream for breakfast.  My children were not around so I did not have to be a good example.  We had to find some way to make it through the week, right?

No trip home from WA would be complete without a stop at Multnomah Falls.  Love this place.  I love the whole drive down the Columbia Gorge and will miss it.

All in all it was a very productive trip.  Mom and Dad’s house looks so fabulous there will be a bidding war for sure, Sarin got her first kiss, and Allison learned how to get other people to do her heavy lifting thanks to Craigslist.  Oh! and the crazy man who drove all the way from Vancouver up to Lacey to get my parents free armoire made his wife very happy.  His parting words to us as he drove away with the huge armoire hanging out of his little tiny truck were, “Happy Wife, Happy Life!”  And Mom and Dad, you’ll be glad to know we did not see the armoire laying by the side of the road in pieces. 

Liberty turned five years old this week!  We love our spunky, talkative, dance wherever she goes, everything STILL has to be pink, knows how to hold her own on a cul de sac of boys, little girl.  She has been counting down to this birthday, that’s for sure. 

While eating her birthday cereal she said, “I can’t wait to go look in the mirror and see how much taller I am!”

She’s got em all wrapped around her little finger.  Even the neighbor boys gave her presents.  These included a re-gifted minion and pink paper airplanes.

Presents!

Pigs from Levi

Fairy Flutterby

This is a flying fairy that she has wanted for a long time.  But now she is terrified of it.  Picture those little toy flying helicopters with no controls.  It just smacks into the ceiling with a loud crash.  Oh well.

 
A light up ring from Cade

Light up Shoes from Grandma, who hasn’t actually seen them yet.

The Cake!

Liberty helped make and decorate it.

Here is the cake with the Sleeping Beauty Lego Set Cake Topper

Many moms welcome summer vacation because it means they get to have their kids home with them for a while.  They get to spend the time with them they don’t during the school year.  They take their kids to the zoo, to the water parks, and to the library, contentiously keeping  them up to date on their “summer reading program” .  I am not one of those moms this summer.   I am with my children all day every day of the year and so in June I took a complete break from anything that looks remotely like what I do the rest of the year.  With the exception of swimming lessons, dinner and laundry my children would not even be able to say they have a mother around this summer.  “A mother?” my children would say, “You mean the lady who has spent the whole month reupholstering those two chairs in the family room?  You mean that lady who doesn’t even make us come in for lunch or up for air from the lego closet?  You mean that lady who shows up to spray us with sunscreen, drive us to swim lessons and then disappears once we’re home to read a book or watch a show on netflix?  You mean SHE’S our mother?”  It’s true.  I’m not particularly proud of it, but it sure has felt nice!   And I think I deserved it.  So that is why there have been no blog posts for a while.  Mom was on summer vacation.  Now that June is over we will pick math back up again and probably history and we’ll hit the library, the parks and the river. 

To end the dry spell, I’ll start with….

The Fourth of July!

Yesterday we lived the all American 4th of July.  Our day started off with the neighborhood pancake breakfast and bike parade.

This picture was taken BEFORE the parade.  Liberty actually got left behind at some point in the parade until a nice couple rode up to help her make it back to the park. She was so worried she told them our phone number and they actually called our home to tell us they had her.  LOL.  She was only a few minutes behind everyone else, but by the time she got back she was not a happy camper.  She was hot, tired and sad she’d missed the big finish.   

**I will take a moment here to interrupt this 4th of July blog post to tell a funny story about Liberty knowing her phone number.  About a month ago she decided she wanted to learn it, so she found an old calculator she could use as a phone and  asked me for the number.  I told her the number, she typed it in a couple times and that was that.  I didn’t think anything of it and didn’t think she had actually learned it until later that night when I took her shoe shopping.  As we were checking out, the very young smarty pants behind the counter asked me for my phone number.  Before I could tell her, she turned to Liberty and asked her if she knew her phone number.  Then turning back to me in a very officious tone said,  “I am studying Elementary Education and it is VERY important for small children to learn their phone number.”  So very many responses went through my mind at that moment.   But I chose to graciously keep my mother of four/ex-elementary school teacher/homeschooler mouth shut and just smiled sweetly back at her.  Liberty then proceeded to rattle off our phone number perfectly to the nice little smarty pants behind the counter.  That’s my girl!**

Now back to the 4th of July.  In the evening we got together with most of our neighbors on the cul-de-sac for a BBQ and then lined the street to set off all our fireworks.  It was really really cool!   Lemonade, red, white and blue, face painting, water fights, old people, young people, and kids running all over the place with smoke bombs and snappers.  All to celebrate the birth of our country.  I am reading John Adams for book club right now and couldn’t help but think of his quote about the 4th of July:

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty; it ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”

Here are some pictures!

 
Is it just me or does this NOT look like Levi?

My neighbor’s father in law

Growing snakes

The monster truck ear mufflers got her through most of the fireworks.

God Bless America!