The Fourth

Well we survived the 4th of July. It wasn't my best one ever, but thanks to the Roes, it wasn't my worst, although it did come close.

The day started out well enough. I ran at 5:45 with Liz and Shelly. In all my months of not running, I forgot how much I really, really enjoy running with friends, especially those two. I started running regularly with Liz and Shelly back in 1999; I can't believe it's been that long. And even though I struggle a bit to keep up, I have so much fun running with them that the suffering is worth it.

But the day went downhill from there. Brandon woke up sick and promptly went back to bed. The weather was miserable, so the girls started climbing the walls shortly after the SpongeBob SquarePants marathon ended at 9:30 am. Campbell pulled his trick of pooping 45 minutes into his nap and refusing to go back to sleep. So I was left to quietly entertain three kids for several hours. I was ready to pull my hair out at about noontime.

After lunch I told Ella to put her skates on so she could do a lap around the block. Lily never made it out of the front yard. She melted down over whether to ride her bike or walk, so she got carried back in the house and put down for a nap. Ella, Campbell (who was in his stroller) and I made it to the far end of the block before it started raining. By the time we got turned around and back home, it was pouring. Campbell wasn't sure what to make of all the water.

We went in through the garage, and Ella forgot to shut the door to the house behind her when she came in. I walked out of my room just in time to see Campbell fall headfirst down the steps into the garage. Amazingly, there wasn't a scratch on him. The rug at the bottom of the steps must have softened the blow. After reassuring Ella that we weren't mad and that her brother was OK, I took Campbell back to my room to nurse him. I sat there in tears thinking about everything bad that could have happened as a result of the fall. I told Brandon later that it was our one free pass.

Just as I was really about to lose it, Lisa called and asked if the girls could come play with her kids. I pushed them out the door before Lisa had even finished speaking. While the girls were entertained next door, I went off in search of pyrotechnics. I bought $10 worth of stuff and headed home. Lisa had ordered pizza for everyone, so we ate dinner and watched a fun movie.

After dinner we headed outside and made lots of noise and smoke with our sparklers and worms and pinwheels. Ella and Luke had a minor freakout when I set off a couple of bottle rockets. Russell had pointed out that they were illegal in the city, so the kids were in the tree convinced the cops were going to come arrest me for setting them off. Once Luke got over that fear, he was very interested in the proceedings.

It ended up being a great evening. Brandon staggered out after a while, and we all hung out in the front yard until after 9:30. The kids were having so much fun running around and watching other neighbors' fireworks that we hated to make them go in, but eventually they just got too tired to go on.

So yet again, our outstanding neighbors saved the day! We can never move, even though we desperately need the space.