Small town Fourth of July

For the past five years we have celebrated the Fourth in our small town's parade. It is one of the very enjoyable things about a small town, although the town is growing very quickly and the celebration gets bigger and bigger every year...

The kids decorate their bikes and ride a few blocks from Mr. Jim's Pizza to the Haslet park. Maddie was so excited this year to have her big beach cruiser; we could barely fit in the car, but with her incredible determination and positive outlook, she thought up a plan that worked and we got it there sans truck!

Here are the kids with friends from our church and town. I think the Wildes (in car and w/ blue balloon) have been in this parade for the past 5 years with us! New friends, the Johansons, joined us for their first parade as new to town.

Our kids were first in the long line of kids riding bikes this year (following all the fire trucks, church floats, and old fashioned cars). Ted was really wishing he had his own "General Lee" (Dukes of Hazzard) to ride around in the parade...he did find his "inner redneck" later on as you'll see in the photos to come--

More of our wonderous neighborhood/church buddies, the Johnstons and the Smiths.

And here are some dear friends and cute chicks: Tasha and Maegan. I love these two and appreciate their friendship and the fact that they live so close to me!

What would a 100 degree parade march be without snow cones??! So then we get to the evenings festivities. We stayed inside all day because is was SO HOT! The kids and Ted played the Wii for about 2-3 hours which is probably a record. Our summer has been busy so far, so they have rarely played. Ted was thrilled with the chance to be a couch potato and the kids were equally excited to beat him at all their games.

I went to work making the BEST homemade brownies (rich and fudgy) and a cinnamon apple cobbler. Quite delish! Our friends, the Watsons, brought us a jar of homemade salsa which was a real treat! Nice holiday gift!

Then two families that we knew in New Hampshire (who now live here within about 10-15 miles of us) came over for dinner and fireworks. All the men work at Fidelity Investments which is what brought us all here to this part of Texas.

The guy below walked in our front door in a ghetto "Rednecks Rule" baseball hat with mullet attached...we were cracking up! Ted was inspired; Nick laughed as he and this guy have joked since Nick was 4 years old about mullets...

Ted had to go find his mullet wig, Freedom Bandana, and his Witness Protection Program T-shirt (he always jokes about getting into the WPP).

Sparklers, of course...

The Watsons and the Olsons. We have a great time reminiscing with these families and a lot of laughs due to the great combined humor of the 3 men in this photo. We are glad they live by us and remember us back when Maddie was a baby (and later Nick when he came along; he was born in NH). Old friends are fun to have near! We look forward to more holidays away from home (when all of us are in TX we are without relatives nearby) with these friends from our old "home" in NH.

Watching our small-time fireworks was a bit scary for our friends' little kids, but the later show put on by our subdivision was fabulous! Huge, bright fireworks for about 15 minutes, once it got dark. And all from the comfort of our front yard. Now that is a great Fourth: good food, good friends, no crowds, no driving, no traffic coming home. Ahhhhh.

Come on back, now, ya hear--

(isn't that the final line of all the Dukes of Hazzard episodes?)

see you next year!

~ Ted, a/k/a Ricky Joe, and Ryan, Lee Wayne

Oh, Say Can You See...?

Nick practicing his swing in our living room?

(I'm imagining the heavy, metal bat coming loose from his grip and flying into a lamp, the wall, my head...)

Baseball season is upon us again! Ted loves coaching and is again, this Spring, coaching Nick's team. He got to pick the team name (from a short list) and picked the Dodgers. Practice is twice a week and now games have started. Nick plays 2nd base and is hitting a lot better this year. More confidence, I think, due to his increased abilities at basketball and football...it spreads, which is good. I almost think Ted enjoys the season more than Nick: he is a natural out there encouraging the boys, yelling out things to rally the boys (with the gusto that makes me think of Jeff, his brother, who used to roar like a dinosaur through a giant PVC pipe to the nieces and nephews in Ma and Pa Buck's backyard). Ted then checks out games and scores of other teams so he knows where their strengths and weaknesses are. When they won their first game, Nick came home and was singing, "We are the Champions, my friend," with full dance moves and closed eyes. He was SO proud!! Play ball!

Catch a leprechaun?

Last night Maddie made a Leprechaun Trap and set it by our fireplace.

You can see there is a rainbow around the sides and at the top; there is a little cup of "gold" rocks to lure the little guy in; there is a lot of green and sparkles of silver on the orange path to the cup of gold. She has a blue plastic tupperware type container above it, with a string, ready to DROP down and capture the greedy little guy when he tries to get the gold nuggets. She put lots of cotton balls in the holes of the blue plastic container, "to look like clouds" and in hopes of helping bring him closer.

Well, this morning, Nick raced to see what happened: the "cage" had fallen, but the little man had apparently escaped by shoving a rock through the small hole on top where the string was coming through the cage; he had tried to take a Miley Cyrus lip gloss of Maddie's, but what luck left us (or he did) was a little box of Milk Duds. The kids were excited, especially Nick. Maddie did the whole set up for him.

While living in New England, St. Patricks' Day was a BIG holiday; the Irish & Italian Catholics have kept this tradition alive and now every Sunday before March 17th, most cities have a big parade. At school, on March 17th back in 2004, when Maddie was in 2nd grade, the class left for P.E... When they returned they found green glitter all over the room and some chocolate gold coins around the room. She was soooo excited!! She asked me why the leprechauns had never come to our house... (?????) and so she has started creating the tradition (for Nick and for fun; she loves to have lots of fun traditions) in our home.