Independence Day

I love the 4th of July.  Love it.  I still always say it is far and away my favorite holiday, though with all of us being separated such a distance Thanksgiving and Christmas are catching up since that is when we all see each other.  Anyway, my memories growing up of the 4th are of big block parties, tons of kids running around way past our bedtimes, feeling pretty independent while closing the night with spectacular fireworks.  Then I spent several summers at camp CGA and learned to associate the day with lawn games, dressing up in as much red, white, and blue as possible, and finally jumping in the lake for a bath after shoving watermelon in the face of every person I came across in the great watermelon wash.

Boy have things changed.... not necessarily better, not worse, just different.  I'm the PARENT now!  Weird.  My boy stayed up way past HIS bedtime and while he had a blast, BML and I were exhausted!!  We started our day off with some good old fashioned crafting...I'm pretty sure this was an idea on pinterest.  P and I painted our hands and feet and made flags, he thought it was so much fun to be able to paint "mamu's" feet and made that request several times that day.  We both had paint all over us for the bulk of our celebratory day.

*side note: I'm attaching pictures at the end because they are just on my phone and its easier that way, so scroll down for the cuteness.

About 20 minutes later, Aunt T and Yay Yay came in from their 6am bike ride and watermelon 5k ( T will tell you all about that I am sure).  P showed off our drawings and we all got cleaned up to head out to brunch at KeKe's.  Have those of you who live here been to KeKe's???? It is incredible.  SO delicious, so clean, so fast, and kid friendly.   P loves to sit outside on the little chairs built especially for him and sweet L.  I think pancakes were the order of the day.  Aunt T is in the photo, not Mamu...some people get confused. :)

Next activity!  Make your own ice cream in a bag.  This one once again took about 10 minutes - 20 total if you count eating and clean up time.  Since P is constantly moving I do not know how he refuses a nap, its only 1pm and I can't wait for bed.  The ice cream turned out pretty great, just mix half and half, sugar, and vanilla in a small ziploc, then place it inside a large ziploc, layer with ice and rock salt, toss around for 10 minutes and magic!  Ice cream.  I was pretty impressed with us, it was delicious.  P had to wear oven mitts to throw the bags around, it got pretty cold.  Then, I melted some chocolate chips in some coconut oil for our very own homemade magic shell.  I know.  Amazing.

Next up - the neighborhood parade.  The only people who were definitely counting on were Grandad (Geendad, the Judge), LTD, Aunt T (FTD), P man, little L, LDL, BML, and Captain and Pax.  Thats a parade in itself!  We decorated L's radio flyer and put silly bows on the dogs, and dressed the family in their color appropriate outfits and went to set out around the lake....when the tv started screaming about a thunderstorm brewing that would spew hail and thunder and lightning and everyone should stay indoors.  Not us!  We amended our parade plans to just around the creek - there would be no rain on our parade! (Are you so proud of me Mom??)  Some of our new friends met us with their baby and 2 yr old and our neighbors came along too with their newborn with his precious 4th of July ballooned stroller and off we went.  It was quite a parade.  Watch out next year for an evite...or I'll class it up with a paperless post.

Are you tired yet?  I am.  Wrap up our parade with a delicious flag cake made by LTD and BML, FTD, me, and P man were off to the neighborhood 4th of July party!!! No pictures, it was incredible.  So fun to see all of our new friends in the area and all of their kiddos.  Our family left a little early so we could make it back to 1127 to watch fireworks with LTD and the Judge and so little L could go to sleep.  They were  amazing, but the most fun was watching the wonder in P mans eyes as each firework exploded above him.  Maybe that was why the 4th has always been my favorite, that at the end of the day, you are a hot, sticky, sweaty mess, but each moment was full of wonder, and independence, and a little bit of magic.  P finally had enough and put fingers in both ears saying "all done! all done!"  And we all passed out about the same time.  Happy.

* second side note: I have no pictures of our parade, the party, or fireworks.  But I bet someone else does...or I'll get them from yay yay and post soon.

Long Winters Nap

Well, hello there readers. I know, I'm sorry. I bet you dont even recognize me anymore. Maybe with some time, you'll be able to forgive. I sure hope so.

So, since the last time I wrote to you, I have had a number of adventures. The week before Thanksgiving I said "see ya later" to LA, and headed to Orlando, if only for a minute. LTD picked me up at the airport and we headed immediately to Pensacola, Fl. That's right, I was in Orlando for exactly as long as it takes to drive from the airport to the city limits. I dropped LTD off in Pensacola and continue to drive to Fairhope, AL for a friends wedding. If you have never been to Fairhope, and I don't know why you would have, you should go. It is a lovely town, and I had a lovely time. Since I'm updating for a number of weeks, I'll keep things fairly surface oriented, not too many details. But, at the reception for this wedding, they had these grilled cheese sandwiches. Now, I know, you're wondering how a grilled cheese sandwich could possibly make a non-detailed post. Well, they were delicious. Little triangle pieces of bread with ample amounts of pimento cheese slathered in between the slices, the chefs generously applying butter as they brown to perfection on the grill. You're mouth is watering, I just know it. Anywho, after the festivities, I picked LTD back up from Pensacola and headed to Orlando.

Once back in Orlando, it was time to celebrate P-man's birthday(the L clan was in town for Thanksgiving). The kitchen was decorated the night before with streamers and balloons, most notably a life-size(I guess life-size for a fictional character is hard to gage, but it was large) Elmo balloon. I didn't really know how much the kid loved Elmo until this trip, but he loves Elmo, a lot. For the big day LDL, BML, LTD, Pman, Goose, and I all made the trip to Disney. Originally, I didn't think a 2-year-old could really enjoy Disney. I was later told by a family friend whom I was recounting the story to, "Aw, no man. Kids love that [stuff]." Which, of course is the truth. Pman loved riding Pooh, and pointing out all the animals, even the ones only he could see(they weren't imaginary, he just saw them when others couldn't. The kid is impressive. BML and I took his on Dumbo, which was a lot of fun, however, we did get a few looks as maybe an "alternate lifestyle family." As LDL mentioned in her post, Pman also loved Jungle Cruise, although it was the site of his one and only meltdown. Granted, it was nap time and the line was pretty long. It was also fairly evident it was coming as he started to get a little loopy and decided that taking a sip of his water and spitting it all over himself was funny, which, of course it was. The Country Bear Jamboree was also a bit hit, but P missed some of the show because he was very taken by Buff, Max, and Melvin- the lovable animal heads on the wall (buffalo, deer, and moose respectively). A very successful day to day the least. And tiring.

We were minus RBD3 for Thanksgiving, but still managed to have a decent time. The food, was, as always, quite delicious and provided me with meals for a number of days to come. I don't know how many of you have had LTD's chocolate meringue pie, but, well, let's just say it would be featured in my "last meal". This is generally not a real healthy eating time for me. I have a problem with holding back when there are all sorts of deliciousness around me. So, I didn't hold back. And I was ok with that.

My next adventure was accompanying LDL, Pman, and Goose back to Annapolis to help pack up for their big move to Otown. More than once, I was called "Daddy" by strangers referring to my wrangling of Pman. It was too early to try and correct them. I was a little nervous about how the plane ride would develop, since I dont fly with 2-year-olds very often. But I learned quickly that for these 2 hours(or so) the best thing to do is to give him whatever he wants. Which was really just food and "birds". And ice.

While in naptown, my responsibilities were pretty much just either to play with Pman or to pack. These often overlapped, and really the majority of the time was spent playing. There were at least two games he enjoyed very much. The first, was me carrying him as we ran in the field behind the house. This got tiring quick. Not because I didn't want to do it, but because I physically got tired and could no longer do "more". The other started as an accident, I think. P was balancing on my stomach when he drooled on me. I laughed and said something along the lines of "ew, P, dont drool on me." So, of course, he loved this and thought it was hilarious. After playing and packing for a few days, I drove the volvo down to Orlando to begin the L clan moving process.

Next up is Wilmington, NC. Another wedding. I rode with a few people, which was a little ironic, since I pretty much had passed Wilmington on my drive down a week earlier. I had been to Wilmington once before for a 4th of July weekend. I vowed never to come back. Not because the city isn't great, because, it really is a cool place. But, because, well, nevermind, it's not important. The wedding weekend came and went, with all the functions being fun, and once again I left saying, "never again."

Before Christmas, 1127 saw the return of FTD and RBD3. We all had a great few days, which included a lazy Christmas day the like of which haven't been seen before at our house. One of our main goals was to make sure the house would be ready for the arrival of the L clan. 9 family members sleeping under one roof. I believe everyone was quite dobie (I hope everyone passed the reading comprehension portion of the last post). We really spent the next few days just hanging out and being together. I know it had been, but it never really seems that we've not all been together in recent memory.

New Years Eve came and we had a nice family dinner before a few people headed out and a few people headed to bed. It was good to see some friends before heading back to the West Coast in what would be a few days. Oh, at this party, there was some incredibly good food. Chicken and pulled pork sliders, really good sushi, and my favorite bacon-wrapped dates. I probably had 20. I don't think I'm really exaggerating much at all.

Well, I think you probably saw the pictures of the walk in which P made us all wear hats since it was so cold (60 deg). It was a pretty great send off to cap what was a wonderful 6-weeks bouncing around the southeast. I forgot to write about a Christmas party, which was great, but the best part was that it ended with viewing some old family videos with great friends which led to gaffawing as they always do. Shortly there after I FB'd (I would actually like to see everyone's reaction to that to see who immediately understands, and who never gets it) that "I'm sorry you didn't have my childhood." I was obviously meant as a joke, but I just can't imagine anyone having it better than us.

Fin.