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Nostalgia & Fireworks

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By Sarah


I felt like our son's childhood showed up in the mailbox this week.  We received his t-shirt quilt back and couldn't have been happier to finally have this project we have been planning for years complete.  As an unexpected bonus, we can snuggle up with all these memories when he's out with his friends instead of hanging out with us!


Speaking of Danny, we got to have a very special lunch with the amazing woman he is named after.  There was much to celebrate with her graduation from college, upcoming kindergarten teaching job, and engagement to be married.  I will forever be grateful to her and the amazing life she brought into the world.



Someone realized she hadn't hung out with her friends in the month of June other than music camp so has been making sure to spend time with friends more in July.  She enjoyed a day out with her besties, played tennis with a friend, went paddle boarding with another friend, volunteered at a farm with another, and still had time to hang out with her family.  I'm so proud of her for getting out there and creating the summer experience she wants.


When our youngest said goodbye to the elementary school, we realized she had missed out on a few experiences that all three of her siblings had gotten to enjoy.  One of those things was the Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory Tour.  She had never been!  How could she be a true member of our family?  lol.  Well, Michelle helped me get Natalie there and we had a great time tasting herbal teas, watching the new video at the beginning, taking the tour, and buying our favorite teas and tees -- they both spent their own money to bring home green CS shirts.  It was a great little staycation and a great summer bucket list item crossed off.


For the 4th of July Hubby dropped off Michelle, Natalie and I at a local symphony performance where we knew some of the performers, including M & N's current private instructors.  It was great to have Uber type service so that we didn't have to worry about parking!  After coming home we watched Independence Day in the basement, made sugar cookies in the shape of stars and decorated them with red, white, and blue frosting, ate dinner, and had s'more out back. Usually our close neighbors all get together and shoot off legal fireworks but we knew none of them were going to be around so we opted to keep it calm this year.  Danny missed out because he went to a friend's house but let me tell you the most exciting part of our day.  While we were in the backyard we could hear people setting off fireworks but couldn't see them so decided to walk to the sledding hill to watch from there.  It was quite the show between everyone setting things off from all directions.  And then Hubby got to call 911 after a couple fireworks went sideways and started two different grass fires in the park behind us.  Luckily it wasn't windy and the first fire truck showed up in only five minutes.  But there is construction going on at the park so the truck had to stop and use bolt cutters to get through the construction fence.  They got that first fire out super quick and then an off road style fire truck pulled up on the other side by the second fire and then a third truck came with a bunch of fire fighters and they used shovels and pick axes and a little hose to put that fire out super quick.  You could tell they all knew just what to do and were the definition of professionals.  So grateful to them and their hard work on a holiday!


We took it pretty easy the next few days and my mom got those of us willing to go to the DMN&S into the traveling Power of Poison exhibit free of charge.  This was so well done and had a little bit of fun for everyone.  Whether you prefer plants, animals, literature, mysteries or murder, there was something to enjoy.  We spent almost two hours in just that one exhibit, ran through Prehistoric Journey real quick to show my mom a couple of the gnomes from the scavenger hunt, ate at Jimmy John's, and then headed home to check on our oldest two, who were too tired to wake up in time to go with us.  They have been hanging out with friends a ton, which just makes me all the happier when I get to be around them.





 

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