Summer Vacation, the Blog Dry Spell and the Fourth of July

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!