Archery, Fireworks and Burned Hands

Quick, quick! Ask me a question about competitive archery. I'm your answer woman! Or at least I will be until tomorrow when my brain moves onto more vital trivia such as "where exactly Snow White the POlly pockets dress is" or "why the band-aids are located in a box in the closet next to the q-tips," or "the complete plot of Cinderella, Little Mermaid, Bugs Life, Sleeping Beauty and fine points of the movies that not even the writer knew about when they wrote them." VITAL.

My brain puts an expiration date on things that I learn. If I don't use it at least once a day it usually doesn't stick around. This explains why I no longer remember basic plot lines of any books that I read. I just don't use that information. Imagine: Me, "Kenzie, wasn't it so funny when Heathcliff (insert something from Wuthering Heights because I can't remember anything but his name)?" Kenzie:"Mom why can other people wear tanktops today?"

Yeah, I'm working on the fine literature discussions around here, but so far the best I've gotten is in-depth discussions on the evilness of Ursula in "The Little Mermaid." (Mommy, why is Ursula bad?" Me, equivocating, "Well, maybe Ursula didn't have nice parents or someone was mean to her. Wait. I mean, Ursula chose to be bad. She CHOSE it! Remember Kenzie it is not your circumstances but how you react. Ursula chose to be bad!")Pathetic. So I'll only be able to recall archery facts until roughly tomorrow.

I just spent the last two days learning the finer points of archery for a story I'm writing for the Standard. It was really interesting. I'm going to put archery on my list of "Things I Want to Do When I Have Hoards of Money and Time and Energy." That is a long list. Archery is a fascinating sport with a long history-- and that my friends is how I am going to transition in the Fourth of July pictures. You know, history? 1776 is history. So is the fourth of July. Well, it was a good effort anyway. And you didn't really think I had a great story about using archery in our fireworks until we burned our hands, did you? Oh. I'm sorry.

Here's a lot of pictures: (and I'm sorry I said I was going to write more often on this blog and make it less of a family journal. My life is pretty much nothing to write about if there's no cute girls and fine husband to redeem me. So back on with the status quo.)

Sat. Morning (the 4th) we went to the Hooper parade. It goes right in front of Mike's parents' house so we don't even have to get there early to get spots. Plus they throw candy. If you look carefully in the parade pictures I believe you will see me eating candy in every picture.

We love living close to our families. Kenzie and Hannah love their cousins. And check out that awesome velcro-hooker-boot action I've got going in the background.

Hannah and Gracie were so delighted to see each other. I love how they squeal with delight when they meet. After the parade we got to go swimming with Sherrie and Josh and their kids at Josh's work pool. (He's a PT and they have a pool in his building.) Kenzie tried so hard to be as brave as Kandelyn and even jumped in a few times, although she hated it.

That night we celebrated by going up to my Uncle Delbert's in Liberty. His house is right across from the city park and it is small town Fourth of July at its best. Here Kenzie and Hannah are peeking from the window of the three story playhouse (!) in the backyard.

We had a great time at Liberty Days. We ate a delicious dutch oven dinner at my Uncle Delbert's first and then headed over to the park. Oh yeah, I even made a flag dessert. I hope my Grandma was impressed. Hannah was not impressed with the caterpillar train ride. This was her expression the whole time.

Kenzie, however, was delighted. We also enjoyed watching the greased pole climbing and playing on the playground. They also have an awesome stomp. It's the only time I ever get to dance like a crazy person in public and not be cited by the police and thrown in to jail for nervous twitching. The girls didn't really love the dancing this year, so I was only able to use my mad crazy dancing skills during the hokey pokey and then it was off to the playground. Where, ohhh I'm sorry I can't push you in the swing girls. My boot will get sand in it.

After the Hokey Pokey and some wonderful 80s dance moments (that I longed to use my skills in but could only hear from the playground), we walked across the street and spread out on the lawn for the fireworks. Poor Hannah was absolutely terrified. Grandma Vickie tried to comfort her, but I think I heard her screaming when the cannons were quiet. When they broke out the Sparklers though, she was okay. Kenzie liked the big fireworks, but then she burnt her hand on her first Sparkler and refused to touch them for the rest of the night. Smart girl.

The next night we did a few Sparklers and a couple fireworks of our own. Hannah burnt her hand, so we were two for two on teaching our children the dangers of fire. Go us. It was a great Fourth. Happy Summer Everyone!