Our Fourth of July was full.  After a breakfast of coffee and cinnamon rolls (mostly for the kids) we went to nearby Harrisburg for their annual parade.  Harrisburg is a small, one traffic light, farming town, and they put on a fun parade every year as well as a spectacular fireworks show along the river at night!  We’ve been attending for 15 years and it never gets old!  This year, we invited our friend Mike to join us, as he had never been to this particular event.

These are the faces that say, “Even though I’m a teenager, I’d love to have some candy thrown my way”

My kids are teenagers now, but a parade is still entertaining.  My daughter is still prone to run out into the street and pick up the candy thrown from the floats.  She’s also prone to picking it up and giving it to a small child who may have not seen the candy or wasn’t quick enough.    She’s a good girl.  We’ll keep her!

My son, is more interested in the vehicles that are driven through the parade.  This year, he was mostly interested in all of the emergency vehicles and what would happen if there was an emergency while they were in the parade.  Good question!

Antique machinery is always amazing, especially when it still works

After our morning at the parade, we drove back home for lunch, and the annual viewing of “Independence Day”.   It’s the traditional movie of the holiday at our house.  When we saw it for the first time, I was 8 months pregnant with our first child.   I don’t think she liked the movie back then.  It was a loud and intense movie, and she moved around a lot.  Now, she’s nearly 17 and wasn’t that interested in seeing it in person.

In the evening, I made a couple of pizzas for us to feast on while sitting along the waterfront in Harrisburg.   Bringing a pizza to the fireworks show is another tradition for this holiday.  After watching “Independence Day” 17 years ago, we went back to our spot for the fireworks show, and Kevin and the friends who were with us at the time, thought that a pizza would be nice and wondered if the local parlour would deliver to someone literally sitting in a field.  So the guys called in an order and within 30 minutes, a pizza delivery truck pulled up to the edge of the field.  I felt kind of bad for the other spectators there, as they started to gather around the truck thinking that this popular restaurant was bringing hot pizzas to sell.   They were rather disappointed when they were told that they needed to place an order for the truck to come back.

While we waiting for darkness, we walked along the waterfront, stopping to talk to people we knew, visit my church’s elephant ear booth, and stop by my friend Debbie’s house.   It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other in person, and since our kids have seen each other.  All of the kids have grown taller, which, even though we’ve seen each other’s pictures on Facebook, it’s still a little shocking to see in person.

The evening ended with a spectacular fireworks show.  In about 3o minutes, it was all over and we were back in the car, trying to navigate through snails-pace traffic and a couple of neighborhoods where fireworks were being lit in the middle of the street.    We arrived home rather late, expecting to see our cat, Aslan, hiding behind the toilet (his hiding place when there are loud noises outside).  Instead, he was on top of our fridge.

Maybe he thought that the breadbox would make a better bunker!

Elizabeth 🙂

During this past week, my daughter has been at church camp.  My son is old enough to go, however, due to his autism, he would need a personal counselor to help him get through the day’s activities and I think the boy would only want to stay no more than 3 days.  After that, he would be more than ready to go home and back to his routine.   So for the week that Heather  is off having fun at camp, Kylin is home, living the life of an only child.  In the beginning, this sounds appealing to those who live with siblings, however it doesn’t take long for the boy to become bored.  So Kevin and I try to add some fun activities to his week.  That way both kids can say that they enjoyed their weeks (hopefully).

When Heather was a baby, Kevin used to take the occasional business trip.  So I would buy a set of blank notecards and write a little note for him to read for every day that he was away from us.    Sometimes, he would do the same and sometimes, he would include directions to follow to find a surprise that he had hidden in the house, such as candy or toys for the kids.  When Heather started going to camp, I started writing notes for her.  She then decided that perhaps it might be easier for the week to pass for Kylin, if she left for him a daily note that included directions to find a little gift (and a picture that she had drawn of a favorite cartoon or videogame character).   So when she’s at camp, the first thing that he wants to do after breakfast is to open that day’s note and find the gift (this year, he also video recorded himself giving reviews of each item).

So, here’s day 1

The note

A “Wreck-it Ralph” action figure!

Day 2: A Rubber Snake!

Day 3: A “Cars 2” Paddle ball

Day 4: Hotwheels Emergency vehicle!

Day 5: A new “Cars 2” with mini Reese’s Peanut Butter cups (his favorite!)

His sister came home today.  She greeted him with open arms and he skipped/ran right to her.  He may not say that he misses her, but his parents can tell, and it really shows in his excitement when she comes back.  And he gained 5 new items to enjoy!

Elizabeth 🙂

I don’t know when this train rolled into town. My husband saw it in our local train yard yesterday, and knew that our son would be interested too. They share a love of trains, both life size and the HO size model. So tonight, after dinner, we drove over to the train yard to see if it was still there. Is it here for a new paint job? Is it just passing through? We’ll probably never know.

Elizabeth

Spring is officially here, and for us, since we live in an area which in a past life was farm country, that means, ants. Those tiny little sugar ants.
My son discovered them this morning. They had a set trail between the back door, across the metal strip that divides the living room from the dining area. Their destination was the box where we had our latte machine and bottles of flavored syrup. One of the bottles had obviously leaked, sending a signal to the scout ant, that there was sugary goodness to be had.

My daughter pointed out that the ants weren’t fooled by a box that read “Dandy Quality Lettuce”

My son felt that the best course of action was to use a water gun (even if it looks like a dolphin).

I chose what has been the best solution for getting rid of ants for several years.
Probably not as much fun as squirting water on them though!

From my pest-free house to yours,
Elizabeth.

I’ve been a little lax in writing lately.  Not necessarily due to lack of motivation, but more so of  thinking that I had nothing to say.   Apparently, on a blog, you can talk about anything………literally.

So just a little update.

SPRING BREAK:
Our break lasted only for a week, whereas our local public schools took two weeks off (the school district’s way of trimming the budget is to eliminate a few days of the school year). Since our budget was a bit tight, we tried to have some inexpensive fun locally. We went to the library, went to the mall, and saw “Wreck It Ralph” (cute movie!).

School has been back in session for a little over a week now. I’m working on tweaking the schedule and chores so that hopefully, we’ll stay on target and can be more efficient so we can have more time for fun.

Last week, Kevin had a tooth extracted. So I helped out by making soft meals for him to eat while he recovered. I’m guessing that it wasn’t necessary as he was eating Mexican lasagna 2 days after the extraction.

So that’s the latest. I’m hoping to fit blogging in to my schedule more often.
Right now, it’s time for me to tuck my kids into bed.

Elizabeth 🙂

During the first week after moving to our current home, we met a new neighbor.   The kids were upstairs, looking out of their new bedroom windows, and the next thing we heard was “There’s a chicken in the driveway!”.  Unfortunately, I missed out on seeing it, so I didn’t get a picture.  Then several weeks later, after our cats had moved to the new house, and were acclimated to the new surroundings and allowed to go outside, the chicken paid us a visit again.  This time, she was followed by her owners who live on the next street over, and told us that she tends to like to wander.

Two days ago, she was back.

Heather discovered rather quickly that a chicken will peck at you if you get too close, even for a picture.

Aslan noticed the chicken, but wasn’t curious enough to stop sunbathing.

Oscar also noticed, but didn’t really care.

Once again, she roams through cat territory, unscathed.

Don’t let your guard down Henny Penny!

The cats will figure out the natural pecking order of life eventually!

Ec

One of the few decorations that I have for Valentine’s Day is a set of blocks with letters that spell out “HUGS”, “KISS”, “XOXO” and “LOVE”. Over the course of the past two weeks, the kids and my husband have had some fun, forming some new, non-Valentine words. I would switch it back to something more holiday appropriate, and they would switch it to something else.

Ec

For several years, for this particular day, I do to like have little treats for my family, waiting on the dining room table in the morning. When my kids were little, they looked at this day as they would Christmas. They were up before the sun, anxious to dig into their gift bags and see, and sample, the chocolate representations of our love. They didn’t mind having their pictures taken in their pjs. In no time at all, the chocolate was gone, and they were sugered up for the morning.

Fast forward to now.

My husband and I were the first ones awake. The kids still love chocolate, but they do love their sleep even more. The chocolate is still sampled, but the rest is set aside and nibbled on during the rest of the week.

They still hope that I’ll deem it a holiday so they won’t have to do school. Sorry kids 🙂

This year, we gave them each their own set of Sharpies (so Mom could have hers back) and one other little gift that we thought they would like.

I gave Kevin a couple of chocolate truffles, to go along with the regular candy, as well as some novelty di-cast cars to display in his cubicle at work. He gave me a dozen roses, a card, and the promise of dinner and a movie tonight.

I think that he may have outdone me in the gift department!

Ec