What's more American than a pancake breakfast and bicycle parade?

Our ward (church congregation) gathered this morning to enjoy a yummy breakfast, flag ceremony, bicycle parade, and singing of Patriotic hymns.  We had a great time! 

It started with the Boy Scouts presenting the flag and we all said the Pledge of Allegiance.  Then the Cub Scouts had a brief presentation about the U.S.A., followed by a beautiful acapella solo of "The Star Spangled Banner".  And then it was breakfast time; pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage links, hash browns, and juice. 







When we finished eating, the kids brought in their bicycles and decked them out in red, white, and blue. 





Of course, they had to have a parade, so they made one lap around the cultural hall and then made a lap our two around the building. 







And we finished up by singing "God Bless America". 

I love celebrating Independance Day and this was the perfect way to start!

Liberty

I love celebrating our Independance Day!  And I'm thoroughly looking forward to all of the celebrations tomorrow.  I hope that all of you enjoy a fun and safe Fourth as well.

I also hope that we remember how blessed we are to live in this great country.  We take our freedoms for granted.  I love the song in this video (though, my favorite version is sung by Hilary Weeks; this version is by Twila Paris, the songwriter):



(If the video doesn't work, here is a link to it on YouTube.)

What Did He Die For?
He was 21 in 1944,
He was hope, and he was courage on a lonely shore.
Sent there by a mother, with love beyond her tears,
Just a young american who chose to rise above his fears,
And as I watch him struggle up that hill,
Without a thought of turning back.
I can not help but wonder,
What did he die for, when he died for you and me,
Made the sacrifice so that we could all be free.
I believe that we will answer each to heaven, For the way we spend a priceless liberty.
Look inside and ask the question,
What did he die for, when he died for me?

To the darkest day in a.d 33, Came the mercy and compassion of eternity,
Sent there by a Father with love beyond His tears,
Blameless one, the only Son to bear the guilt of all these years,
and as I watch him struggle up that hill,
without a thought of turing back,
I cannot help but wonder,
What did he die for, when he died for you and me,
Made the sacrifice so that we could all be free.
I belive that we will answer each to heaven, For the way we spend a priceless liberty.
Look inside and ask the question,
What did he die for, when he died for me?

He died for freedom,
He died for love,
And all the things we do to pay him back, could never be enough.
What did he die for, when he died for you and me,
Made the sacrifice so that we could all be free.
I believe that we will answer each to heaven, For the way we spend a priceless liberty.
Look inside and ask the question,
What did he die for, when he died for me?

I've got good news and bad news.

I'm the kind of person that likes to hear the bad news first, so everything will end on a good note, so here you go:
The bad news: Aurora woke me up at 5:30am. Then again at 6:30am, for good.

The good news: It was to go potty in the toilet.

And even better news: She kept her diaper dry ALL NIGHT LONG!!!

I've got three words for you:

NO ACCIDENTS TODAY!!!

Aurora did such a good job today! We played at the park for an hour, went to the grocery store for a quick trip, attended a 2 hour baby shower, and then took Cadi shopping at three stores - and through that all, she stayed clean and dry! :)

Ryan has created a monster.

We absolutely love living in this great state of Washington.  And we LOVE celebrating the Fourth of July here because you can really celebrate in style; just about everything is legal and it's a BLAST! (Literally! lol)
Last year, we were smart and went to the Indian Reservation the day after the Fourth to buy all of this year's fireworks ahead of time.  We got such a good deal!  And we were set.  :)

As the Fourth has approached, Ryan started getting that look in his eye and all he could think about was blowing up stuff.  He started to get crazy ideas, like buying MORE fireworks.  I made him promise that he would pull out the supply he had stored up from our day-after shopping trip last year before he went out shopping, because I was confident we had enough and something of everything he wanted to have.  Thankfully, he agreed.  And when we did pull out all of the fireworks this week, I was right (of course *wink*) and Ryan had to admit it.  We did good!

But there was just one more thing he'd really like to get.  Just a few aerials, you know, fun little stuff for the kids.  Uh huh.  So, I went with him.  Ryan unaccomanied in a fireworks tent is NOT a good idea.  Even with me being "the mean lady who holds all the money", he still managed to get another set of tubes for his finale.  But we left spending less than $100 so I was happy.  We both got what we want.

*whew*  Crisis averted.

Or was it?

Yesterday when Ryan got home from work, the first words out of his mouth were, "How much do you love me?"  To which I responded, "I love you so much, I let you buy nearly $100 of fireworks even though we had a room full of fireworks already.  How much do you love me?"  "Well, uh...."  So, I worded my question differently, "How much did you spend?" 

"I stopped by this tent...  90% of the proceeds were going to soldiers (or their families, or something like that). And the family working the tent had a son/brother killed in action themselves.  Then, while I was there, my co-worker stopped by.  Turns out, his fiance is the cousin of this soldier who had died and it was her family working the tent..."

Again, I asked, "How much did you spend?"

"A lot."

*groan*

I committed him to staying away from any more fireworks tents/stands/stores.  "Even if there is a poor, starving, orphan getting all of the proceeds, YOU CANNOT BUY ANY MORE FIREWORKS!!!"

The survivalist in him flashed his smile (that he knows I'm a sucker for) and quickly agreed, along with agreeing that he totally owed me and was going to do some major kissing up.  He was done.  No more.  Don't worry.

Later that night, he and the girls went to return a couple of movies we had rented last weekend.  They took awhile longer than I expected and I suspected (hoped) that they were picking out a new movie or two to rent.  Instead...

The first thing I heard when the door opened this time was, "Don't be mad at Acadia, be mad at me."

"WHAT?!?!?!?!  Did she take her wallet with her?"

Acadia had spent her birthday money to buy more fireworks!!!  (He swears he tried to talk her out of it.)  I was flabergasted!!!  Are you kidding me?  We already have enough to have our own firework stand, why would she use HER money to buy more?  Ryan always lets her light some, so she didn't need to get her own for that.  And if she really wanted to have "her own", she could have given ME the money and we'd let her have some of ours.  This family certainly did not need more fireworks in this house!

But she didn't want to wait until Saturday, so she bought some to fire off in the meantime.  Last night she lit a few of them, but she saved most of them to light with her friends either tonight or tomorrow night.  She and I did have a little talk today about thinking things through and not just making decisions in the heat of the moment.  I pointed out that she could have gotten a huge Littlest Pet Shop play center, or several smaller toys, or cute outfits (she's getting more into fashion lately), or even taken a girlfriend to a movie and lunch or something... any of which would have lasted longer and probably been worth more to her in the long time.  I hope that next time she thinks a little more first.

I think she just got caught up in the heat of the moment.  Her dad's been going crazy over these fireworks and we are all looking forward to our own personal pyro show Saturday night.  I understand why she wanted to get them, I just hope she understands why she really didn't need to, and therefore it was a little foolish.  Harmless, but foolish. :S

Oh, and lest you think I'm exaggerating about how many fireworks we have...



Do you see what I'm saying?  No joke, we have PLENTY of fireworks and none of us need to spend a single dime on more!

But we are gonna have one heck of a firworks show this weekend! lol

Celebrating even the smallest successes.

Even though we spent half of yesterday at the neighbor's house, I don't really count it as an actual "outing" in regards to testing Rori's potty training skills. So, today has been big!

We first went to a park (that does not have restrooms) this morning for an hour. When Rori needed to go potty, she told me, we got in the car, and raced home. She made it!

Then, the real test: we had to go to the grocery store! It wasn't a big trip, just a few items I would need for this weekend. We went potty before we left, I packed my purse with an extra change of clothes and some baby wipes, and headed out. Again, she made it! We didn't even need to use the store's restrooms. :)

These were both small trips but still a good sign. This afternoon we're going to a friend's house for a baby shower. Hopefully that will run just as smoothly. :)

A pretty good summer day. :)

Today started off productive; I cleaned out the playroom.  There was one bag full of trash and another (plus) filled with toys to donate to the thrift store.  It looks great!  And as one friend already pointed out, all I need to do is keep the girls out of it and it will stay looking great. ;)

After lunch, the girls got their swimsuits on, we put on our sunscreen, and we headed over to our backyard neighbor's house to visit.  The girls played with their friends in their kiddie pool and I sat and visited with my friend, talking about the beach trip we're taking in a couple of weeks.  (Yay!)

Rori did pretty well.  She did wet her swimsuit once (that we know of, lol) so I ran her home for a quick change, but other than that, she had me running her inside for potty breaks fairly often. 

I took lots of pics, check them out:



After playing outside, it was wonderful to come home to a cool, A/C house.  I grilled ham and pineapple kabobs for dinner and the girls are now snuggled on the couch watching a movie.  It was a pretty good Summer day. :)