Happy 4th of July

What a FUN 4th of July.  

Peter knows how to put on a show.  A 12 billion dollar show if you must know. No one lost any limbs, sunburns were kept to a minimum (and so was sleep), we ate like kings, rode inner-tubes (with some tears and some fears being conquered), rode quads (and were young enough to believe that there was a 9:00 PM automatic cutoff switch (and if I'm honest, young enough to believe there was an automatic cutoff switch anytime someone told them so because they would have ridden in circles ALL. DAY. LONG). We celebrated Dante's 8th birthday with homemade (ok, ok, Betty Crocker) cake, we shot guns (not "real" ones), we found a snake (not cool), and we insisted on a sleepover in the tent (that literally lasted 5 minutes before a change of heart).

Simply put, it was awesome.  

 Peter is somewhere in that line of explosives lighting each one of them off. A wee bit scary to watch.

 Dante and Elizabeth had absolutely no fear.  They loved getting tossed off.

Quintessentially summer

You never know what exciting adventures await

The kids have been playing house in the guest house a lot lately. Maddie is the mom, a baker, Dante is the dad, a policeman, stone is a kid and Allie is the dog. They were making a lot of noise, yelling (but not fighting), so I went to check on them. Just as I was walking over a fire truck pulled up and since I regularly win parenting awards I wanted to keep up the good work and tell them the firemen were coming to arrest them for being so noisy. They all looked freaked out so I enjoyed that for about ten seconds and then started laughing. The kids were fascinated and went out to see the truck. They got stickers and eventually an offer to climb up and in and look around. They were in heaven. The visit was capped off with a 30 second ride. It was so sweet to see them all so thrilled. (The truck was there to clear the ivy from around the hydrant)