Independence Day, 2011

We spent the July Fourth weekend mostly at home this year. After being in the basement for so long, we have really been relishing our time at home upstairs. The Reids joined us overnight Saturday, trying out their new tent in the backyard, Sunday we did a little work on the house, getting Pony Gal's bed put back in her room and the air vents around the house replaced. Monday we attended the parade in my hometown, came home to make curtains for the master bedroom so the nightlight wouldn't be shining on the bed in its new home and then went back to town to hang out with my bil and sil and watch fireworks in their yard. It was a fairly laid back weekend, with lots of time to reflect on the liberty that we hold dear and the sacrifices made by those who came before and those who still serve that make it possible.

 

I am not a big fan of sparklers due to the massive amount of heat they put off, so we went pretty low key with our at home celebration and just purchased a few boxes of the snakes. That was enough for the kids, as we did watch some larger scale fireworks shows throughout the weekend.

 

 

 

We got Pony Gal's bed back from her grandma's house and reassembled in her room. Gram had been borrowing it while we needed to store it to help her rehab after a broken pelvis. She was done for it and we were ready for it, so it worked out pretty well, and Pony Gal is happy to have her room coming back together.

 The Independence Day parade in Carlisle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(I should also note, that as I am loading these, I can see that my camera and lens are in desperate need of cleaning. I haven't been able to load pictures while we were downstairs, so now that I can see them on the computer screen, YEESH!)

Easter with the Family

We personally do not do egg hunts in our house, as Easter has nothing to do with eggs. The kids and I talked about the real meaning and the story of Easter and that we really treasure our time with family, so we go do those things, but those are fun things that really do not add to the importance of the holiday. It was really rather cute as we were going through the Easter story-I think I take for granted just how much a three year old can grasp. We were nearing the best part-where the apostles find the empty tomb-and Pony Gal was asking a lot of questions. I was trying to answer them without breaking the story up too much as Superboy was on the edge of his seat. I got to the part where Mary turns around and sees Jesus and Superboy jumps up and yells "Yay!" and claps his hands. He was pretty psyched that Jesus was alive :)

All that being said, we still do egg hunts with family. It is part of what they've always done, and we respect that. The kids enjoy themselves. We ended up doing one at Grandma G's church, then one at her house and one at

Pre-dinner entertainment-golfing with badminton rackets in Grandma G's front yard.

 

 

The hunt begins at Grandma G's. Dad and his brother Uncle D hid the eggs-sort of ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cousin C and Superboy comparing finds

 

 

 

Cousin C was calling this his "backpack" :)

 

 

 

 

Here the hunt begins at Grandma B's

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notice the arrow I am dodging...

 

Sweet Gift

Grandma Gail brought out cupcakes for the kids for Valentine's Day. They loved them :)

More Christmas Scenes

Apparently I never finished loading them. One funny incident was at our celebration which happens Christmas Eve. We decided to bake a birthday cake for Jesus-we don't do Santa as he has NOTHING to do with the holiday (I respect Catholics who celebrate St. Nicholas earlier in the month)-and had made a nice chocolate cake.

 (Our Christmas tree, complete with newspaper packaging and few decorations. Simple.)

I asked Pony Gal if she wanted to frost it (I was taking the easy way out. There was no frosting. There was Nutella. Nutella is one of the best frostings ever. Period. It's in our emergency food storage. It's that important. I am speaking in short sentences to help you see the importance.). She said yes and proceeded to start, but wasn't getting the hang of it, so it kind of ripped up some of the middle.

 (The mantle-the gingerbread house and a few cards up there, as well as our homemade stockings.)

I have to say, as something we were doing for Jesus, it was not the prettiest cake you'd ever seen. So, she decided to stop, and planned on finishing it in a bit. Part of the issue was that it was a gluten-free cake (I should be able to eat some, right?) and was terribly flimsy/crumby.

 (Pony Gal made this Santa in art class, and was rather pleased with him. I think he'll be a permanent addition to our Christmas stuff, even if we aren't Santa folks.)

About this time Superboy walks by. He wants a carrot, so I give him one. He takes one look at the cake and asks who it's for. I explain that we are celebrating the birth of Jesus a long time ago, and that the cake is to help us celebrate and remember why we are having Christmas. He says, "Oh, will Jesus share his cake?". Oh my gosh-I had to turn around here to not laugh in front of him, because he was SO sincere. I turn back around and explain that Jesus probably wouldn't be eating any cake, and that he would be okay with us having some in his honor. Superboy insisted, no, that Jesus would be having some cake, and that we could too. I relented. He's three.

 (Homemade peanut butter fudge and minted fudge. I'll post recipes later.)

So I leave the cake on the counter, and next thing you know, I see Superboy walking around with a Nutella covered carrot. I giggle a little. Much like his mom, he'll eat anything that has been dipped in Nutella. I assume it is out of the jar, until I get closer.

There are cake crumbs on it. Fabulous-I glance over and the cake is DEMOLISHED. Not only did he stick it in, he dug around. I did say we could share, but I wasn't anticipating what that would look like with him. Later I walk by and he has parked his carrot-half eaten full sized carrot-in the middle of the cake. Stuck in like a giant candle. Oh, dear. And to top it off, I apparently forgot to take pictures.

 

(Our gift to Wally: I made a matching chef's hat and apron set)

(Our gift to Genna, the same as Wally, only with Care Bears)

 

 

 

 

 

 (Dad's parents wanted a pictured with all of us. As you can see it wasn't easy to get. Pony Gal wondering why we have to do this. Superboy not wanting to be there. Me straining to keep him still for the camera. Good times, good times.)

 

 

 

 (Uncle Allen and the very sweet Malary)

(You may remember from my previous Christmas post a shot of Uncle Allen's awesome wrapping job, complete with duct tape. Here we have Auntie Andie's wrapping job, which nobody wanted to open because it was so pretty.)

(New shooting ear muffs. Gotta protect those ears on the range.)