Monday, July 8, 2013

Our Holiday Weekend

I was off work on Thursday and Friday last week to celebrate the Fourth of July. It was lovely.

The girl and I rode with my mom to watch the Fourth of July parade. Tom had to go to town himself to pick up some tools and stuff (I’m pretty sure ‘stuff’ is the technical term for what he bought.) and off-handedly asked where we stood/sat to watch the parade.

But see, I’m on to him these days. I kind of thought he might show up since he’d asked where we’d be. But, in case he didn’t, I didn’t say anything to the girls. And it was a lovely surprise for them when he arrived about ten minutes before the parade started.

Jaxon was especially happy Tom was there because it meant that Olivia could sit on her dad’s lap and Jaxon could sit on mine, with my hands over his ears while the fire trucks and polices cars, sirens wailing, slowly passed in front of us.

After the parade, my mom and I took the three kids to the park, then to Kohl’s. What, you don’t go shopping on the Fourth of July? It was great. There were very few people there and it was cool and relatively calm, if you don’t count Jaxon’s insistence that Alyssa push him all over the store in the stroller cart.

We dropped Jaxon off with his dad, who had worked that day, and my mom and the girls and I hit the grocery store. Ugh. It was crazy packed. I wondered why everyone wasn’t out having picnics or even at the lake. But then, I remembered, duh, we were there too. It was less than pleasant.

My aunt had invited us to her house to watch fireworks so after dinner and a brief rest, we went back to town to sit in her backyard and watch the show. The kids played tag, ran around with their glow sticks and held sparklers.

We got home at 11:00. Olivia had fallen asleep in the car about five minutes after I strapped her in.

The next day dawned bright and beautiful. By 1:00, the girls and I were at the community pool, getting in free due to them closing suddenly the previous Saturday due to low attendance.

Ten minutes after we arrived, much to Alyssa’s joy, she noticed that a good friend from school had arrived with another friend. She spent hours frolicking with these friends. I was so happy for her. Swimming is always so much more fun with friends.

Saturday morning the girls asked if we could go to the pool again. Alas, it was not meant to be. The weather was definitely not conducive to swimming. It was cooler than usual and cloudy with chances of rain. Instead we hit the library and the dollar store to get gifts for Tom’s family reunion which is happening this coming Sunday, the day after my brother’s wedding. Yes.

Yesterday morning Olivia asked upon waking if we could go to the pool. We looked outside and I told her that it probably wasn’t going to happen.

But don’t feel sorry for her. Both A and O spent the entire day in their pajamas, lounging around the house, playing ‘animal shelter’, watching movies and watching me start the cleanup of the toy room. As of yesterday afternoon, that room is no longer the toy room. It is currently the empty room. Yes, I got it completely emptied out and next week, after our Cedar Point trip, I’m going to paint the closets. Yes, closets. The smallest room in our house has two closets. I’m not complaining. I love that room and both closets but…two closets.

One of the closets is going to be painted hot pink and the other is going to be navy blue. They’re going to be awesome. Just like our holiday weekend.

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