The Fourth!

We had such a good day celebrating the fourth!

We did what we usually do on this holiday...

In the morning, we went to the parade. There is something fun about a small town parade that you don't get at the bigger ones. You probably know someone in the parade, and even if you don't the person next to you does. It's probably your neighbor.

There were fire trucks with screaming sirens, and cute little faces waving out the windows.

There were children everywhere dressed in the colors of our flag, looking sweet and festive, running and collecting candies thrown out from the parade.

Some even brought bags for collecting!

And there were the fifes and drums! This little girl took her job as sign-carrier very seriously.

She was so cute!

There were the sounds of the parade:

loud sirens blasting our eardrums; a local blue-grass band; the fifes and drums;

horse hooves clopping; chattering conversations.

And there were the smells:

Something sweet like candy, fresh horse dung,

heavy exhaust fumes from antique cars, and coffee.

When the parade was done, we went to the Arts and Crafts fair. It is very cool that the Township pays for all this fun stuff for us to enjoy on the Fourth! Wow!

Sweet Girl tried the Bungee bounce and loved it!! Being not yet full sized, she got stuck hanging there once and we were laughing so hard, all four of us telling her what to do -- full of advice, and yet not one of us moving to help the girl! (We didn't know if it was OK or if only the "qualified professionals" were allowed to help her.) It was really funny, and she was smiling the whole time.

She did some flips forward and backward and I was pretty impressed! It was her first time.

We got airbrush tattoos (she: a sunshine on her arm, me: a butterfly on the back of my shoulder) and we tried some spin art.

Even the dogs were dressed up for the day!

In the afternoon, we had a cookout at our house....

Family and friends (my son wore his colonial clothes),

Grandgirls here...

and Grandgirls there

Precious Grandgirls everywhere!

All dressed in Red, White and Blue.

Watermelon...

And water balloons...

Bocce ball and horse shoes... good times, good neighbors, friends and people we love.

One good day.

I was so tired at the end of it... didn't know if I'd be able to stay awake at church the next day!

But I did.

What a great day. I love celebrating the Fourth here!

Deliciously Hot Day

Spring has been cool. The plants know it and we have been waiting

for "real" summer to get here.

It got here.

The temps since yesterday are around 90, and will be for most of the week.

We are all melting. I am glad for the sun, but still, it is hot. Last night, the heat had drained my energy and I felt exhausted by suppertime, but still had to fix a meal for everyone. By bedtime, I was feeling like a worn out rag. Pretty droopy.

So today, I got up and cooked in the cool of the morning. I boiled potatoes, eggs, and pasta so we could have cool salads for supper tonight. Yeah, I am going to fix potato salad, pasta salad, and tossed salad. I love cool, salad-based meals on hot days. I'm making big salads so they'll last a few days. Yum. I think this will work. (-: It's going to be nice the next few days to have food prepared ahead for meals. It will save me a lot of work on these hot days.

June 22, 2009

It's summer! Officially, finally and truly summer. Yesterday was solstice, and while we were celebrating Father's Day I barely noticed that it was the longest day of the year! This week is going to be sunny and hot -- very summer-like. Ahhh... finally, it's summer.

I'll have to put up a new banner. Not right now. But I will get to it. I kind of like the spring one I have up now, so... no rush. But I will find something to replace it soon.

Happy summer, everyone!

Question of the Day

If heat melts fat, why doesn't laying out in the sun make us skinny? Just askin'. We could get tan and lose weight in one easy step. Wouldn't that be cool?

(pic: We went to the beach last week.)

Rain

Things the rain brings that I love:

156. Sitting and watching the raindrops fall gently

or...

157. Gathering with the children in the living room during thunderstorms, opening all the blinds and curtains wide, and watching the lightning show!

"OHH! Did you see that one!!"

"Oh, that was bright!"

"So beautiful!"

"Wow, that one surprised me!"

158. Hearing their guesses as to the storm's distance as judged by the number of seconds between lightening and thunder.

After the rain...

159. Raindrops on clovers, catching the sun's sparkles and throwing them back.

And,

160. Raindrops on flower petals...

...so pretty!

And of course, the farmers are thankful for...

161. Refreshment for the earth and its crops. (And I am too.. that's my food in their fields.)

Rainy days slow us down and help us remember to relax, stop the hurrying and the flurried fretting. It's good.

Drumming at Festival

Festival here in Our Town is so great! It's a city-wide celebration of the Arts. Thousands of people come, and everyone seems so happy, relaxed, and friendly.
We come partly because we love the Arts, partly because we love the food!

I love drumming at Festival!


Here we are, my drumming friends and I.

These two men are the ones who have been my drumming instructors, Sunny on the left and Josh on the right.

Sunny was born in Nigeria and had a group there which traveled all over Africa and Europe bringing drumming and African dance to audiences. He's great. He began to teach me African drumming, and I loved it. He is also a great friend.

Eventually I began learning with Josh instead, and still am. He teaches Afro-Cuban style drumming and I enjoy learning with him.

Can you tell that I love doing this?

I really do.



One of the fun things about festival is the Audience participation. This
little participator was adorable.

"Sticks up",
Josh shouted to everyone involved, in order to give them a chance to listen to the instructions.

OK, there we go. That's better! Once everyone was together,
the people loved trying out the drums.



Meanwhile, I sneaked out my bubbles and started blowing them all over. It was good...
Jen, one of the more experienced drummers, grabbed one of the bubble wands and ran back and forth across the stage area, creating bubbles everywhere. We all loved it!
I was very glad I'd brought them along.

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(Pics were taken either by Amy or KatyBeth... I don't know which are which. Thanks to both of them for handling my camera wile I was busy!)

Bubbles!

I love bubbles... rainbow-colored, floaty things that they are...






















They are just so much fun!

Really! So fun! (Look at Dustin back there grinning for sheer joy!)

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These pics were taken by my good friend Amy at Festival this past weekend where I drummed and we all had a great time! Amy takes good pictures and I love how she captured my mood in these.

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