Well, the fourth of July weekend reminds us a lot of last year when we were brand new to ol' Omaha. The difference is last year, we had the Hilts in town - and we played tourists all weekend. This year, it was just us, and we painted the basement :)
Actaully, it was a perfect blend of productivity and play. We kicked off the weekend with "family night" at the pool on Thursday night. The kids love it and it was the perfect night - HOT and sunny. They play tunes and of course, Nathan really loves that. Friday, Frank and Ellie went to see Ice Age 3... Nathan opted to stay home again. The kid is afraid of the movie theater for some reason -- "too much dark" is the reason he's giving lately, but who knows. Don't know how much to force the issue -- I'd think he'd go just for the lemonade and popcron, but no...
Saturday - "the" day... the weather was fairly crummy - cool and drizzly rainy! Frank and Ellie went to the neighborhood bike parade, but they were home within a half hour. (nathan, again, elected to stay home -- could a three year old turn into a raging agoraphobic, and would they blame his parents??) We went out to dinner on Saturday night - apparently, if you want to go to dinner and fight absolutely NO crowds, 5 pm on the 4th of july is the time to go! It was fun, but we were home early and faced the task of keeping everyone awake until dark for fireworks. We enlisted the help of videos... Cars, anyone? We remembered the fanfare of neighborhood fireworks from last year, so we didn't plan to attend an official fireworks show (especially since it was still cold and wet outside.) 10:00 pm - finally dark, and the kids really enjoyed seeing the sky light up -- best view was from Lucie's room, but the kids liked the excuse to run around the house to check out all the views... driveway, deck, Lucie's room, Nathan's room... it was fun, and no - staying up late did not make anyone sleep in later on Sunday morning... :)
Sunday, we spent a fair amount of the day putting the basement back together - we painted off and on all weekend (naps, night time, anytime we could catch a break from those kids!). But, ti took a better part of Sunday to strip all the tape, put the railings back on, switchplate covers, etc. -- such a great feeling to have another room freshly and cleanly painted!
