Knee-high by the 4th of July

That's how tall the corn is supposed to be, said P-daddy's step-daddy from Michigan. I have never planted corn before so I had no hope of it actually working out that way. By the end of June, the little stalks were, well, little. But darn-tootin' if it didn't so happen that by the 4th of July, they were even as tall as Niki's dh's knee. Very cool! The sunflowers are already as tall as the kids, and the fruit trees we planted in early spring are now over 7 feet tall.

We had a little tent city going on for the 4th, where the C-family and the Mack family came to celebrate the beach fireworks. Unfortunately, it was a blisteringly hot 4th and by the time they arrived, I'd been cooking in an 85 degree kitchen and was embarrassingly cranky. My friends are good friends, however, and they forgave me; we went on to have a nice time. :)

The tide was too high this year for us to repeat last year's sprawl, especially with three times the people, so we settled for perching on the rock wall. Unfortunately this unduly confined the toddlers and by the time the best of the rockets were going off, they wanted none of it. They revolted so most of our party left early, but I stayed behind with Niki's dh and one big kid from each family to enjoy the big show. I kept chanting for Gandalf's dragon, while Mack's older son kept telling me it didn't exist! That gave me my opening for the quote of the day, where I said "Nonsense! There haven't been dragons around these parts for years....." but I deviated to finish with "there might be one any day!"

Sitting with G on the blanket, watching the explosions reflect in her eyes, made the entire endeavor worth it for me. She sat there, face glowing in the night, with an expectant smile on her open face which broadened with every sparkling detonation.


On July 5th, the Mommies plotted against the nine children we had collected together in an attempt to wear them out. We fed them a carb-heavy breakfast, led by chocolate chip cookies, and then took them on a small hike before leading them down to the sunny-hot beach where most of them actually swam (in Puget Sound. The very idea makes me shiver). We finished them off with a sprinkler fest in the back yard with chilled leftovers from our cook-out the day before. There's something awe-inspiring to me about a 5 year old gnawing on a cold BBQ rib bone.

Has summer finally arrived????