America's Birthday

(UPDATED because I forgot to add the funny tidbit of US history from my oldest son... While we were driving to Muskegon on Friday, they had American flags along the median of the road. Joshua asked me why they were there. I told him that we were celebrating the birthday of the United States of America. He said "oh, like America that John Washington was?" and I said, "Kind of - George Washington was the first President of the United States." He said "Oh yeah, and who was the second president, you know, the one on the penny?" And I laughed as I told him, "Well, John Adams was the second president, and Abraham Lincoln is on the penny. He wasn't the second president, but he did some very important things too, when he was the president." And Joshua said "Oh yeah, I remember now". So, there you have it. America was founded by John Washington Lincoln - the first president on the penny! I sure got a laugh out of that one!)

I hope everyone had an absolutely beautiful weekend! Here in Michigan, God somehow saw fit to bless us with 2 beautiful holidays in a row - Memorial Day and now the Fourth of July. And if you live here, you know how rare and special that really is!

Our holiday was wonderful. Rick had to work up north on Thursday and Friday, but it was really a dream come true for him, so it was worth it. He's always wanted to be a police officer and he finally got his chance. Thursday after work, Joshua, Logan and I just kind of hung out. We went out for dinner (I have a hard time cooking when it's just the three of us - I feel like I never make the right amount of food and we always end up wasting so much of it since we're not really "leftover people"), came home, took baths and they were actually in bed at bedtime and asleep pretty quickly - that's also rare, since they share a room and they're usually bonding for quite a while before they finally nod off.

After they fell asleep I had 2 whole hours to myself - such a rarity. Guess what I did to fill those 2 hours...... Yup, cleaned my little booty off!!! I was able to multi-task like never before to get everything done before it was time for me to go to bed. Dishwasher unloaded and reloaded, the remaining dishes washed by hand (how is it that even when you're not home, dishes still end up dirty????), counters cleared off and cleaned, table cleared off, bar cleared off (that was a feat since it's a giant flat surface and always "collects" all our stuff when we come into the house), floor swept, 3 batches of Jello made, living room cleaned up and semi-dusted, and laundry going the whole time - being folded RIGHT when it came out of the dryer!!!!!!!! It was incredible. When you're a busy working mom, it's amazing the small household things that bring you such joy!!!!!

Friday we went to Terry and Lois' house on Mona Lake for the day - Rick was able to sneak off work in between shifts to come see us for a couple of hours. That was a treat because I wasn't expecting it. Lucky for him, he happened to call me RIGHT as I was walking out the door and I was able to run back in and grab all of his stuff. There was SO MUCH good food, the weather was gorgeous, and the kids were in the water and in the sand just about all day long. I was even able to sneak to the grocery store to pick up a few things with only Logan because Joshua stayed at Grandma's house with Aunt Cheryl. When we finally left, to the tune of very tired little boys crying because they were having so much fun, it was way past dinner time and we barely made it to my mom's in time to grab her cookout leftovers. There wasn't enough time between then and bedtime for me to get home and make dinner. We stayed there until bedtime and then I dragged two crying (again) little boys home, stuck them in the shower and they were in bed only about an hour late. Better than the alternative, I suppose. We skipped fireworks because I didn't think Logan would handle them well and I'm glad I did. More on that in a little bit. After the boys fell asleep, I splurged on myself and made a margherita pizza and watched a couple of Brad Pitt movies (Seven and Twelve Monkeys), staying up WAAAAAAAY too late, but just enjoying my time off :)

Logan woke up at first light (way too early at this time of year in Michigan), and was so tired that he was still yawning and rubbing his eyes long after he was done protesting the fact that I tried to get him to fall back asleep. The three of us sort of stared bleary eyed at each other over our milk and cereal on Saturday morning, LOL. Not a single one of us got nearly enough sleep. We vegged out for a while, catching Saturday morning cartoons together on the couch. We were motivated enough about midmorning to get the toy room cleaned so the boys can actually use it again. That was nice - it's been on my to-do list for a while. Rick got home about 12:30pm, Logan and I took a nap in the afternoon and after a dinner of PB&J (mommy burned the sloppy joes because she was too busy painting her toenails purple), we headed back out to Mona Lake to watch some fireworks.

Logan was NOT a happy camper when it came to firework time. He doesn't like loud noises normally, but the fireworks pretty much traumatized him, poor kid!!! I ended up taking him inside and upstairs so he could watch out the window and that seemed to help, even though there were quite a few times where he would say "Logan hide" and lay flat on his belly with a blanket over his head. He seemed to enjoy the quiet, colorful ones, though. We finally got home from that at about 11:00pm and we "camped out" in the camper in our driveway. We are borrowing one from Fun N Sun RV (where my dad works) for the Relay for Life and he let us have it early. That's so great because I'll actually be able to get it packed up and ready to go with all our stuff so we're not making trips back and forth in the cars.

We had planned on going to church on Sunday but it was honestly too late by the time we got everyone in bed and asleep and I wasn't too keen on having overtired children for 2 days in a row. Sunday morning we went out for breakfast after everyone woke up - on their own - and then went driving around the area in search of a travel trailer. We're looking to buy one and so we've been keeping an eye out. We found one that looks promising in Spring Lake, so we'll see what happens with that. Then we went over to a friends house to enjoy her daughter's water slide - oh wow was that so much fun!!! We all had a blast. We got some ice cream and then they came to our house for an impromptu cookout. We had burgers, corn on the cob, chips, and cantaloupe with this REALLY good dip I made from a recipe in Fitness Magazine (yup - healthy too!!!). It was truly the epitomy of why I love summer!!!

Did you have as much fun as we did?