Fourth Fun.

I wish I had some beautifully descriptive words woven together to tell the story of what a beautifully glorious day this Fourth of July has been and how it all means so much and that today I taught my children all about freedom, and patriotism, and the Declaration of Independence, and what it means to be free.


I love that the Marine flag flies right beneath the Stars and Stripes.

But the truth is, today was a total bust. It's the day that just won't end...and even as I'm sitting here sucking down my second Klondike bar of the evening, I'm feeling a bit unpatriotic that I can't so much as even light a sparkler because of the gloomy rain that's pouring outside my window.

Sometimes, in my mommyhood journey, I have these days where I feel like I'm a rat lost in a maze and my every turn lands me with a wall in the face and a bump on the head. Today was one of those days.

I took the kids out to King Family to listen to the live jazz and to let them run around; but all they wanted to do, besides eat "coldies" was to sit and dig through my bag and pull out old Bed Bath and Beyond coupons. That makes sense, doesn't it?











Any normal mother in her right mind would have just hauled everyone back home, but no, not me, I kept on only because I was determined to have some fricken fun, dang it. So we went to my next favorite spot on earth, Chiles Orchard, for some ice cream, Surely, this would be a home run. Nope. Not a chance. Penelope immediately dumped her giant cup of strawberry ice cream on the floor, covered herself in sticky ice cream mess, all the while Lucy is squawking because I can't shovel her ice cream in her mouth fast enough, and I can't get to the napkins fast enough either to contain the gooey mess of diary disaster. Ugh.











On the bright side, the peaches are ready. Papa, hear that? The peaches, white peaches, are ready. So we did have some fun running around the orchard.









Good thing part three of my Happy 4th plan consisted of spending the rest of the day at the pool.....except that as soon as we got there (after I had played the "you don't want to go swimming, do you?" game, and the kids are literally cheering for the pool) thunder and lightening started coming over the mountains and the pool closed. Seriously, it was like the Exodus was happening as soon as we pulled up.

But finally, after an indoor water fight, a couple of kick fights and forcing food down the throats of the children, all was well again when Penelope looked up at me and said, "Mommy, you are are the best Mommy in the whole world". I'm pretty sure I saw a halo over that child's head.

Now the day is done, children sleep soundly in their beds, fireworks boom in the distance, I'm thankful that I didn't haul my kids to fireworks tonight, but instead watched a show on Saturday with our dear friends from Norfolk.

















And the irony is that yes, today sucked, my Fourth was a total bust, but because of July 4, 1776 the worst it gets on July 4, 2011 is a bowl of spilled icecream and rainstorms. Because long ago a few people stood up for a few values they believed in, because they believed in something worth fighting for, and not just believed, but fought, and not just fought, but won, my worst days are merely a slight inconvenience compared to the things most of the other mothers in the world have to deal with on a daily basis.

and that, is worth celebrating.