Post July 4th

Clara went with Grandma and Grandpa went they left to go home on the 5th. She got to go to the rodeo on Thursday, a splash pad on Friday and she and Grandma had a girls night out to see Brave on Saturday. Clara helped Grandma make a pie for Grandpa's birthday too.

On Monday, Robert and I drove to pick Clara up and stayed overnight. We had a belated birthday dinner for Grandpa at Cotton Patch and then came home to eat pie and play in the backyard. On our drive home, my low tire pressure light came on and I quickly exited the highway to check it out. I was hoping there would be a gas station to pull into, but no luck. I couldn't even pull off the road because there was no shoulder and steep ditches on either side. I pulled onto a smaller road and I looked up and saw a yellow CHURCH sign, so I pulled into the small church parking lot.

I got out with my tire gauge and could hear air coming out of the tire as I approached it. I had run over a screw. Clara of course needed to use the restroom at that very moment and couldn't hold it even for a minute, so we went inside. There were several cars in the parking lot, but there was no one around the front. I could hear someone praying in a back room, but I didn't want to disturb them, so I herded Clara into the restroom, grabbed a pen with the church's address at the front desk and headed back outside.

I wasn't too far away from Chris' work so I thought I'd see if he could come rescue his damsel in distress. No luck. He didn't answer his phone. I ended up calling AAA. We've had it for 5 years and that was the first time we've used it. All in all, it could not have been a more pleasant experience. (Except for not having happened at all of course.) The rain had stopped, it was nice and overcast outside, the kids played on the church playground and after about 20 minutes, a nice man arrived, figured out how to unleash my spare from it's holding spot underneath the car, and had us back on the road in no time. AAA rocks! I'm so thankful that I was able to get to a safe place before having a blow out and that the entire ordeal ended up being nothing more than an inconvenience.

The next couple of days were filled with Clara grandparent detox, tire fixing, and preparing for babysitting over the weekend. Oh, and lots of rain.

We kept Levi and Ellie on Friday and Saturday night. We hit the park Saturday morning, played with legos, cleaned up toys, watched a movie, made cookies, played some more, cleaned some more, took sandwiches to a different park for dinner, played on the playground, home for baths, accidentally broke a lightbulb in the lamp horsing around, and then up early and to church on Sunday. We handed them off to their grandma at church. Whew. Four kids was a lot of work.

And then on Monday afternoon, Bia and Myrt Myrt came for a visit. It was storming out so the kids climbed up in Bia's lap for a movie.

   

The next day, Bia took us school clothes shopping and got the kids a few new outfits. I picked up Clara's new school shoes too. We went back home for naps and then that night us girls headed downtown and went to see The Lion King.

Clara did not want to stand by this sign at first. She eventually relented. This is Rafiki the crazy baboon. In the musical, Rafiki is a girl. Ironically, she ended up being Clara's favorite character. They didn't allow photography inside the theater, so these are all I've got.

The show was a-mazing! I loved every minute of it. If you get a chance, you should definitely go see it. There was a little more potty humor than I prefer, but it's that way in the movie too. I think there's a little more in the musical though. All of the animals and the singing is just so beautiful. One by one the animals come on stage and each is more fantastic than the last.  It was overwhelming and it brought tears to my eyes. (This from someone who is not normally moved to tears by any art form.) Clara was in heaven. I can't even imagine how grand it must have been through the eyes of a six year old.

This was the first theatrical performance both my mom and Myrt had been to and they were blown away as well. I don't think they had any idea what to expect, but they're hooked now. We're already planning to see Wicked when they come next summer :)

Getting out of the parking garage was fun. We were on the roof, so we got to sit and wait for a very long time and then I took a wrong turn trying to get on the interstate. All told, it took an hour to get home from the time the show ended, so we got home around 11:30. And then the little one decided to wake at 4:00 for playtime. I went into his room about 4 times. Around 5:00,  I saw a light come on downstairs. I went down and he was playing in the playroom. So to keep him from waking anyone else, I turned on cartoons and dozed on the couch.

Don't let that smile fool you.

This is more accurate.

The kids and I did absolutely nothing yesterday after they left. I finally pulled myself off the couch and took them to the splash pad this morning and then cleaned up the house this afternoon.

And now, I am caught up and can mark that off of my to-do list.

Friends and Fireworks

The rest of the 4th was low key. We had naps and then friends over for some grilling. 

Robert enjoyed his watermelon immensely. He took it for rides in his wagon and I caught him rubbing it on his belly. It eventually got eaten, I think.

After dinner we loaded up and headed to Jill's bookstore to watch the fireworks. We got there early and hung out in the a/c browsing books until it was time for them to start. The kids were a little excited about the fireworks.

I guess I should say most of the kids. This guy would've been just fine skipping the show. Methinks he's not a fan of loud noises. He sat in the car and played the entire time. He turned every knob, pushed every button and pulled everything that wasn't bolted down out of it's spot.

Clara was jumping for joy and shouting "Fireworks! Fireworks! Fireworks!" during the majority of the show. Have you noticed that most of the time, I don't even try to wrap up my posts with a conclusion anymore? It's like, boom! Post over.

4th of July Parade

Dan and Linda joined us for the July 4th festivities. We had initially planned to go to the patriotic concert the night of the 3rd, but an hour or so before it was supposed to start, it started thundering and I just didn't want to mess with going even if there was a hint of a downpour. We enjoyed a nice leisurely dinner at Katz's instead.

The next morning we got up nice and early so we could secure a shady spot at the parade. We got there just in time to get one of the last spots. But that meant we had lots of time to kill before the street performers arrived. The kids were pretty tired (and sugared up) by the time everything got started.

Finally, some entertainment. Clara loved the mime for some odd reason. (Side note: Chris says the first thing he would do if he ever became invisible would be to beat up a mime. It would be  the performance of their lifetime.)

Clara got a glittery star stamped on her temple and they both got balloon animals.

Good thing Grandma was there to cover sensitive little ears when the firetrucks came by wailing.

When the parade first started, a horse dropped a little surprise for the rest of the parade-goers. I have to preface this by saying that in Pecos, 90% of the parade is comprised of horses, so this isn't an unusual occurance. But here, there were two horses pulling a wagon and I believe that was the extent of equine participants.

At first we were a bit grossed out because we were so close to the pile. But then? Hilarity ensued. The looks on people's faces as they caught sight of it were awesome. Some never saw it and stepped right in it before jumping away. The boy scouts thought it was funny. The twirlers and and other girls, not so much. Those in flip flops, as well as us observers, cringed as they stepped in it and one dog even grabbed a quick snack. Oh my goodness, everyone around us was laughing and just waiting for people's reactions. Hands down, the best part of the parade. I got lucky and caught this girl's expression as she noticed it.

Someone was hot and tired and scared of the loud sirens. The end couldn't have come soon enough for him. In fact, it didn't. There were large gaps in the parade and then it just came to a standstill for about 10 minutes, so we left a few minutes early.

Jr. Swim Meet

I don't guess I ever mentioned it, what with my blogging hiatus and all, but Clara was on the junior swim team this year. The junior swim team was made up of 4-6 year olds who weren't ready for the regular swim team. Thankfully, after the first couple of days, they made two separate groups because there were so many kids. The younger group had kids that were crying and hadn't really had any experience in the water. Clara was in the more advanced group.

It ran for 9 weeks (the same length as the swim team's season) and practice was every weekday for half an hour a day. She really improved and gained a lot of confidence during those two months. She can swim short distances but still needs a lot of practice.

As the season progressed, the swim coach would move kids up who she thought were ready to compete in the meets. She was about ready to move Clara up but then she had to miss a little over a week of practice because of a bout of swimmer's ear and our school district getting out of school a week later than the district the swim team was in. (They switched to morning practice when school let out.) So when she came back, she had lost a lot of ground and never really did get back to the same level she was at. Which was fine by me. I never really expected her to move up. I was happy with not having volunteer hours, not spending my Saturdays in the heat and not having to purchase a really expensive team swimsuit.

Clara on the other hand asked when she would get to move up almost daily. At the end of the season, they had a party and a junior swim meet so the kids got a small taste of what a swim meet was like. They swam two at a time and Clara got paired with the best kid on the team. He probably beat her by a minute. All of the kids on the swim team, along with all of the parents, stood by the side of the pool and cheered them all on. It was pretty sweet.

Go Clara go!!

At the end, they each got a ribbon.

Here she is with her sweet coach, Stephanie. She was so patient with all of the kids and helped ensure Clara had a great time learning to swim. Chris and I decided that chasing Robert around in that heat with a huge crowd did not sound like fun in the slightest. So in an attempt to make up for not staying for the party, I took Clara to get ice cream afterwards. I asked her if racing was fun and was overjoyed when she said, "No!" I asked her if she didn't want to be on the swim team after all and she said she did but she only wanted to go to practice, not do the swim meets. When I told her she had to go to swim meets, she decided she didn't want to be on the swim team after all. Score!

Sports Camp

Clara attended Sports Camp at church a couple of weeks ago. She was so excited to have Leah and Kate join in the fun. The older kids got to choose between soccer, football, basketball and cheerleading. Being the mean mom that I am, I conveniently forgot to tell Clara that cheerleading was available. Oopsie. So she and Leah chose soccer. I know cheerleading is big right now for little girls, but I think it just adds to the problem of little girls growing up too fast. No judgement. Just my opinion. I want it to be something that she looks forward to doing when she's in junior high (but I'm secretly crossing my fingers that she won't be interested when the time comes).

I didn't think Clara was going to make it all week. When I picked her up the first night, she looked exhausted. She was crying because she didn't know the memory verse and she had a mark on her face where she had gotten hit with a soccer ball. She got hit a couple of other spots too. It was eleventy million degrees outside and she was just a mess of emotions. She woke the next morning saying her legs hurt and she didn't want to go back. She was better by that night though, and thankfully it rained the next two nights so they played inside. She did much better the rest of the week. She learned the memory verse the next day and received a pin on Tuesday for knowing it. Becky and I traded off kids several times throughout the week so we were both able to have some free time and date nights. It was nice.

This picture was taken right after Leah won a cd. She wasn't excited or anything :)

Travis was on their soccer team too. Yay for friends! Clara had a sleepover with Leah on Thursday night. They swam all afternoon on Friday and didn't take a nap. That night at Sports Camp, they played a short game against their coaches and parents got to come cheer them on. I don't think 'game' is the right word for what we witnessed though; it was more like a free-for-all with every single kid on the field running amock. I'm just going to assume she learned some actual soccer skills at some point during the week. Clara and Leah were holding hands a good portion of the game and Travis couldn't seem to stay on his feet.

Clara ended up having an allergic reaction to the fresh cut grass. First her eyes started itching and it probably didn't help matters any when she started rubbing them with her hands. Then she started itching all over and ended up with a few hives as well. As the game came to a close, I gave her some benadryl and splashed some water on her to try and rinse her off. The benadryl hadn't stopped the itching yet, but I think it was starting to make her drowsy as we headed inside for the last few minutes of singing and prizes. She started crying, so I took her to the bathroom to try and rinse her off a little better. Then horror of horrors, Kate won a soccer ball. And then one of the older boys gave Travis the soccer ball he had just won. Clara. lost. it.

I mean, completely lost it. She was a blubbering, itchy, exhausted mess who was unable to contain her disappointment any longer. Oh, the humanity! Her coaches wanted to take pictures with her but she couldn't compose herself long enough to pose for a picture. I was able to convince Kate to let her hold her new soccer ball for a picture and she perked up long enough to snap this quick pic. All in all, Clara had fun at Sports Camp but I was soooooo glad when it was all over.