Favorite

July 4th is my favorite holiday. I love our small town rituals and the friends we gather with for our annual traditions. This year the day started cool and rainy but the weather cleared in time for rockets, dinner and fireworks.

We gather for the parade, which goes right by our house.

This year, S brought the deck chairs down to the street. Brilliant!

Todd made rockets for the kids to shoot off. They were awesome! Here they are standing in line, waiting their turns.

A close-up of the action.

Sweet baby

At 2. Time flies!

The pictures always go in backwards! J, A and s at adventureland.

A and s reading the maps waiting for the park to open. According to his mom, J does not need a map. (Just like his dad.)

On the way.

s showing us how excited he is for adventureland.

An 8 year old birthday! I am crazy about my boy!

friends

A visit from my dear college friend Alanna. So good to see her after much too long. s is trying to be part of the action.

My friends Jennifer and Shannon all decked out for their birthday party with a mystery celebrity golfer.

K and Nana working with Toy.

s, the chicken whisperer, with Buttercup. He has already talked to Uncle Carlos and been assured that Buttercup will live a long, comfortable life, spared the carving knife. (Apparently Uncle Carlos has also bonded with Buttercup. smart chicken.)

last day

Our last day of school for 2009 has come and gone .  k and s have successfully moved on to 6th and 2nd grade, respectively.  The kids were up and out of bed easier and earlier than perhaps any other school day this year.  s wore his favorite outfit.  He has commented to me that he particularly likes this shade of green.  As you might imagine, he can give a fairly detailed account of the genetics of red-green colorblindness.  

My friend  and neighbor, Anne, started a walking school bus about 6 weeks ago.  The concept is that children from a neighborhood gather and walk to school with a different parent every day, promoting friendship, physical fitness and using no fossil fuels to get to school.  s and I have both loved walking school bus and am so happy my friend Anne took the initiative to organize it!  Above you see most of our riders (we were missing one on Friday) and the school bus in action!

do it yourself

While K has been actively campaigning for a cell phone, s has decided to take matters into his own hands.  last night he presented his new phone, complete with special buttons to call all his closest friends and this morning he added a clock (4:30).

A reader might be thinking something about easily impressed parents.  That, gentle reader, would be true.

Iowa Proud

So, now that I have logged on to my blog for the first time in MONTHS, I feel the need to post twice.   Today the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that same sex marriage is constitutional in Iowa.  I am proud of our state and proud to be a native Iowan.  Someday we will look back on times when same sex couples couldn't marry in the same way we look at slavery, woman suffrage and laws against interracial marriage.  I know Iowa is not a worldly place, but in the last 14 months we have chosen Barack Obama as our democratic candidate in the Iowa caucuses and now our Spreme Court has handed down this ruling.  Yay Iowa!

(see also my friend Jenn's blog, she is quite eloquent on the subject)

Vacation

Our family took a cruise vacation in February.  It was lovely to get away from the cold weather and spend time on the beach.  We (or some of us) swam with the stingrays and dolphins.  We traveled to Jacksonville to see our friend Greta and stayed on Jax beach.  A special treat, watching a whale frolic by the setting sun.

Kate and Sam at Grand Caymen Beach

Scott, ready for the mandatory emergency drill

Grand Caymen

Cozumel, after swimming with the dolphins.

Jacksonville Beach, rainy morning, feeding the seagulls.