On the 3rd, Richie had work off, so in honor of the 4th, we took the kids to the curiosity museum. It's so much easier when Richie comes with me! I mostly hung out with Benson. He thought all the baby play areas were so great, especially now that he can crawl around them a bit. Gwen brought some of her money, specifically to use on one of those machines that stretches your penny and punches a new design in it. They want to do this machine every time we come and I always say no. She was thrilled she finally got to do it. Unfortunately, as we were leaving that section of the museum, she realized she had lost it somewhere. I was waiting for a big weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. But I was pleasantly surprised when she said, "Oh well! At least I got to do it at all!" It was all fun and games until we had to leave, and we had the audacity to not buy them any toys from the gift shop, or do the picture booth on the way out. How dare we take them on a fun outing and then come home, right? :) On the 3rd our neighbors also had their annual fireworks show and we were the grateful beneficiaries. We were nervous that because 1 set of neighbors that participates has moved away, they wouldn't be continuing. We told the kids that they had to go get in bed and then if we saw the neighbors getting ready to light fireworks, we would call them out. Miles and Gwen were like race horses at the starting gates in their rooms waiting for us to tell them we could go down and watch the show. People there gave the kids cookies and glow in the dark necklaces and we sat right underneath these HUGE magical fireworks. Lindy didn't like it and preferred to sit with dad on the couch at home and watch from there. Benson slept through it all. Gwen was in her element with friends all around her to play with. Miles was cautiously thrilled, and then completely crushed when it ended. Completely.
On the actual 4th, we had a "real, American breakfast", with eggs from our chickens and bacon from Shane's farm. Richie went to wash some windows, and I took the kids to get the oil changed in the car. But the place was closed. However, right next to the car place was Riverton park and the kids could see all sorts of hoopla happening and asked to go check it out. I told them we would check it out...and that's it. That things like this usually cost lots of money. That no whining would be tolerated. The kids all agreed, and I fell for it. Eventually I told them I would pay for one thing; either a bounce house ticket, or food of some sort. They chose food, and then chose the most expensive food there. So of course Lindy chose to whine about it and not eat any. Obviously. It ended up with me pushing Benson in the stroller with one hand, holding Lindy's un-eaten pizza in the other, and Lindy riding on my shoulders. Tricky stuff right there...
Later that day we let the kids run through sprinklers, ate lots of watermelon and corn on the cob, did water balloon tosses with Grandma, Grandpa and Tanner, roasted marshmallows and made smores, watched "The Sandlot", and then when it was dark enough we did pop-it's and sparklers outside. We had a fairly good view of other fireworks being lit in our neighborhood. I pulled weeds in the front lawn by the light of the street lamp while Miles complained about us not getting up on the roof to watch more fireworks, and we eventually called it a night around 1030. The only thing missing was having a good cry while singing a patriotic song, but I got that on Sunday at church. Ahhh, a complete 4th of July.
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