Rob: Scourge of Wasps

Here's how manly my husband is:  Tonight we took the kids and dogs for a walk to the park.  Arriving at the park, Rob bent to tie the dog's leash to a bench without realizing that the bench was harboring a wasp nest!  Swarmed by wasps he was quickly stung on his hand.  Since the dog was now tied to the wasp's nest, we couldn't just leave, so Rob proceeded to stand there and single handedly kill every wasp (about ten of them) armed only with a shoe.

I'm impressed.

Things That are Good Tonight

1. I am 99.99% sure that I got an A on my final test tonight (on Asian Religions.)  I felt really good about it.  And SO PROUD of myself for studying so hard because it was NOT an easy A.


2. Gideon is really enjoying Algebra camp, unexpectedly so.  His favorite part of the day today was "learning new math stuff.  Because learning new stuff about math is really exciting and interesting."  We clearly have different ideas about exciting and interesting but yay for learning!  Also, on an amusing aside, his least favorite part of the day?  Ice blocking with the church youth group.  It's dangerous and stupid and he pretty much hates being outside because he might get a tick and it is hot and muggy (not especially hot or muggy today, btw)  This kid... he is his own guy.


3. I am a Cool Mom and agreed to dye Serenity's hair for her today.  She wanted to go red, and I think I did a pretty good bottle job.  She is disappointed because it isn't BRIGHT RED, but I think it turned out really cute and natural looking.  She's angling for a second go to see if it will go brighter.  I'm thinking about it.  Meanwhile, we bought the stuff to put purple highlights in mine, but I am not sure I am brave enough to do that at home.  
    (as an aside on her, I came home from school to find her editing zits and "bags under her eyes" from old photographs "just because it is fun."  Sigh.  Can we please not be going there yet?  You are pretty just the way you are.  And pretty isn't as important as you think it is anyway.)


4. The little boys are asleep.  :)  I like them.  They are cute and sweet and I will miss them when they are grown, but they are exhausting.  Oh!  BUT they did have a great day.  They went to a program at the library about dinosaurs and it was wonderful and they got to hold REAL T-Rex tooth and Velociraptor fossils!  Gavin was IN HEAVEN.  And they had fun with friends this morning--we made masks and cookies--and tonight they played in the pool while I made dinner (with Rob supervising from his lawn chair.)  So pretty much the perfect Kid Day.  I feel like a Winner Mom today.  Until I look at the laundry, but we'll just ignore that.
   
   

Home is where your heart is. Which leaves most of us Modern Americans with our hearts spread all over the place.

My sister and her kids were here for the entire month of June.  They have been gone a week and we miss them so much!  I think their presence, followed by their inevitable absence and (on the same day of their departure) the birth of my new little niece in Utah have all conspired to make me terribly terribly homesick in a way I don't often feel.  I need teleportation abilities.  Or I'd settle for a bottomless bank account.

Independence Day

We had a pretty good Fourth of July this year.  I always kind of like this holiday.  To me it is a lot about community and nostalgia and love of country, not in a "we are the greatest nation on Earth/World Champions of Nation-ing" way, but in the same way that you love your family--in a "this is where I come from, an inescapable part of who I am, and I love them even though I know as well as anyone that they aren't perfect" kind of a way.  And it's about actual family too--a day to spend together, eat casual food, and do fun, silly, relaxing stuff.  It's a really affectionate day for me.

Anyway, this year was very casual.  My mother is out of town and my dad was working, so it was just us this year.  We attended a fun pancake breakfast at the church with lovely musical performances and good friends and then I took the Big Kids out to a movie.  Gavin is recovering from a cold and a double ear infection, so spending most of the day at home was best for him.  And Jasper, really suddenly, seemed to develop Pink Eye in the afternoon.  So I hope we didn't get anyone sick at the breakfast!

See that Pink Eye Squint going on?

We have always in the past gone out to a professional fireworks display on the Fourth of July, with the exception of last year, which we spent at my sister's home in Las Vegas where we did our own fireworks, but this year we decided to do them at home.  Which turned out for the best given our sick littles.  And it turns out that we have crazy neighbors who set off TONS of super illegal up-in-the-sky fireworks and did about as good of a display as we would have had if we'd gone out.  Ordinarily I find the Northern Virginia Pyromania in the month of July somewhat alarming, but last night I just enjoyed it.

Gavin was in HEAVEN.  He had a practically bottomless supply of Sparklers and the whole block had turned into crazy sparkly revelers.  The world was perfect.

The big kids also had a great time, especially since they were allowed to do the lighting of our own fireworks, which made them feel terribly grown up.

Apparently this is his firework lighting face?

Jasper, predictably, had some reservations.  Actually, once fireworks started going he refused to come out of the house.  And then the power went out.

So he was standing, safely behind the screen door, with a little flashlight clutched in his hand thinking we were all completely insane.  Eventually the power did come back on and Rob and I took turns supervising the fireworks fun and sitting on a beanbag chair in the entryway with Jasper where he actually really enjoyed the show, safely behind glass.  So Jasper.

  

Hope you all had a safe and happy Fourth of July!