Celebrating Independence

A few days before July 4th, we informed Grammie and Grampy that we would like to have a little picnic of sorts with them to celebrate (eat pie). Grammie and Grampy said that they would like to try taking R to see fireworks that night, so we decided we would have a dinner party at our place.

We soon realized that it was going to be a HOT day, and nobody was interested in eating anything too warm. While Grammie made a delicious cold pasta salad (with bowties that R got a kick out of) and brought corn on the cob (one of R's absolute favorite foods of all time), I couldn't think of anything I wanted to make - and so we decided we'd get take out. We settled on Ali Baba's - a simple spread of hummus, falafel, tabouleh, pasta salad with kalamata olives - and corn on the cob. It really hit the spot.

We were all done eating at 6:30 and we had a couple of hours to kill before leaving for fireworks - and we were all too stuffed to eat pie yet. So we went outside and set up the sprinkler for R to run through. It's the strangest thing. When she is in the bath, she will SCREAM if any water gets anywhere near her eyes. She starts yelling "I need a towel! I need a towel!" and no, a washcloth just won't do. You'd think she was the wicked witch of the west. But put her in front of a sprinkler and turn it on - watch out! This girl loooooves the water! She runs through it, jumps through it, chases it - and sticks her face right in the spray! She runs up to me, streams of water running down her face - trying to hug me.

Anyway, after getting some energy burned, we went back in and had our pie. Poor RUS had to watch everyone eating - again. He's definitely likes his food - like his sister - but he's not yet ready for cherry pie.

Finally, the time had come. We told R that if she was really good, she could go see the fireworks with Grammie and Grampy. Well, she really was an angel. Took her nap without a fuss, behaved at meals, and generally was on her best behavior. So at 8:30, already past bed-time, we packed her into the car - S and RUS opted to stay home. We found a good spot and walked around while it got dark. There were errant fireworks going off all around - but most were in the distance - not very loud. While carrying R on my shoulders, one went off nearby and it was very loud - but we managed to laugh it off, though R insisted on screaming a little bit and told us the fireworks blew away the bugs.

Over an hour after parking the car, the show started. I immediately put my hands over R's ears. They were loud, but we weren't right next to them, so it wasn't too bad. Still, it was not something she was used to. We talked about the different colors and the funny looking ones - after 5-10 minutes or so, R wanted to go home. I told her we could sit in the car and watch, which she was happy to do. It was a lot softer in the car and we could see some out the skylight and others out the windshield. Still, after another 5-10 minutes, R was ready to head home, so we drove off, craning our necks to see a few more. The finale was happening right as we pulled into our driveway, and Grammie said she could see some from the corner of our yard. I considered the event a success. R did not cry or fuss - even though it was way past bedtime - she just informed us when she'd had enough. She did put up a fight when it finally was time for bed, but that didn't last too long.

The next day, she said to me, "Next time, I will see the finale." I'm looking forward to it.

Happy Fourth of July!

I prompt R to say Happy Fourth of July and then start recording.
R: Happy July! Happy fourth of Julyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
S: Can you tell everybody what we're gonna have today?
S: What did Daddy make for the Fourth of July?
R: (looking down and not at camera) pie pie pie pie pie pie pie
R: puts grass in RUS's mouth.
S: Did daddy make a cherry...? (laughing) cherry.... Did Daddy make cherry cupcakes?
RUS: smiles and sticks his thumb in his mouth.
S stops recording video.
R: (as soon as camera stops recording) cherry pie!

(To my credit, R has been making up a lot of words lately, and she spends a lot of time talking like this "La la lu fa fi fefefefe FE!" so I thought she was just making up random words, not saying anything in particular, when she was actually saying pie in response to my question. Sigh.)

Cherry Picking

When I was growing up, for about five years my family lived in a house with a tart cherry tree in the back yard. I have vivid memories of picking cherries every summer with my parents. We kids would get the lower ones, occasionally standing on a kiddie step-ladder my parents had. My dad and sometimes my older brother would climb higher into the tree to get the fruit from the top. We'd harvest as many cherries as we possibly could from that tree. And boy, they were TART.

My mom would make some pies immediately, and then freeze leftover cherries for a later date. Every Fourth of July, we'd have cherry pie. MMMMM, cherry pie. I mean, MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

So when the orchard near us announced *ONE DAY* of U-Pick tart cherries last month, I seized on it, and J and I kept R out of day care for the morning and the four of us traipsed over there and picked enough cherries to make two pies. We made one pie immediately and froze the other cherries to use in making a pie for our Fourth of July picnic today.