Celebrating and Recovering from the 4th of July

We had a great weekend celebrating our country's independence!  Uncle Mike, Aunt Leslie, Aaron and Nathan were here to visit Friday evening through Sunday.  We played and visited and swam at "their" pool.  I cooked and Mark grilled and we ate take-out Chinese.  I made two great - very easy and fun dishes for the festivities; Red, White and Blue Strawberries and a Patriotic Fruit Salad - both were a huge hit!

All the kids had a great weekend and were SO well behaved!!!  They had a great time swimming and paddling about the pool - sadly my camera never left the pool bag!   They got to see fireworks Saturday night from our back windows :)  Sunday was spent at home playing in the yard and eating Chinese take-out, then napping and relaxing.  And I just realized, I didn't line the kids up all cute in their 4th of July clothes and get a pic...might have to rectify that!

Monday, Mark worked in the morning and then due to the threatening thunderstorms we bagged plans to go to the Todd Lake :(  We instead wandered up to Harrisonburg, by way of the Green Valley Bookfair - like we need more books.  But we did find a few treasures and were grateful we were inside when the storms did roll in.  We then went to Goodwill, found Finn 2 pairs of pants, much needed as his diaper was leaking [oops!] and I'm tired of having nothing but shorts for church.  After that it was Chili's for dinner, gotta love kid's eat free coupons!!!  At nearly $5 per kid...we'd never eat out if it weren't for the coupons and free or reduced kid's nights!!!  And what outing is complete without a run through Target?!  All the kids, except Fia, fell asleep on the way home and were transferred to their respective beds for the night.  Sofia stayed up for a bit with Mark and I and watched fireworks from the back windows again.  We were very grateful that we can see at least 5 different firework shows standing in our kitchen!!!  9-10pm is just too late for us and them!

The rest of this week we have been in recovery mode.  Mark has worked a regular schedule and is preparing to be gone next week and studying for a certification exam.  The kids and I have been LAZY!  The house is still mostly clean from my efforts over the weekend with company being here.  And they've been tired...sleeping until after 7a everyday.  Sofia came in our room Wednesday morning exclaiming... "do you know what time it is!!!  IT'S 8:30!!!"  I don't remember the last time I got to stay in bed until 8:30 :)  We have ventured out for the Wednesday library puppet show and swim lessons, but other than that there have been no necessary errands or shopping.  It's been a nice week of breathing.  I've even picked up a book to read, just cause...GASP!  Hopefully, I can snap myself out of it and resume productivity ASAP though, starting to feel like a slug.

Our week has looked pretty much like this....

There has been outside time, girls playing (mostly) quietly in their bedroom, Finn tootling around and Mathilde babbling and drooling! 

Exclamation of the week - Sofia has decided she will be both a baker and a paleontologist when she grows up.  She will bake by day and dig for fossils at night! (who needs sleep?!)

~ Kim