Gone Fishin'

Catching Up: Fabulous Fourth

"Hey, Mom!"

I called my mom on the phone just before the Fourth.

"Want to come sit on a hot sidewalk for two hours, sweating and watching tractors? For a bonus, you might get your eardrums blasted out by sirens and get hit in the head with Smarties."

Why do we do this? Every year, I think to myself, It's going to be hot. I want to stay home. I've seen all this before. And every year we go to the parade, barbecue, go to the fireworks. Why do we sit in the blazing heat watching firetrucks and Boy Scouts on bikes? Why do we eat outside in the back yard? And why do we pack everyone up, drive for forty minutes and sit for an hour waiting for a thirty-minute fireworks show then drive home to tuck in tired, cranky, sticky kids?

And every year....We sit on the sidewalk chatting and stealing the Smarties from the kids' candy bags. The people in the parade smile and wave. We see the same tractors and horses that we saw last year. We gather in the back yard, family all together, with good food and good fun. And we sit in the cooling evening next to the river. I remember why I love the Fourth.

This year's highlights:

The parade. Always. There's nothing like a small town parade. No fancy floats here. The veterans wave and salute, farmers bring in tractors, the insurance agent drives his car through town, the churches pass out fliers, the horses and bikes and red-white-and-blue everywhere. People are smiling and waving.

Our guests. It is perfect that our friends from China are here for this oh-so-American holiday. They get to celebrate our country with us. This year I learned that in China, they too celebrate a holiday with fireworks on the riverbank, standing in the gathering dark awaiting the show. It was familiar and foreign to them.

Backyard gathering. It was 93 degrees, but in the shade of the filbert and magnolia it didn't feel like it. Our family was there, the people I love. That's my favorite part. I insisted that someone play Uno with me, so there was an Uno game at the picnic table. The food was delicious, melon salad and chicken and watermelon and macaroni salad and hot dogs, even delicious vegan sausages. And an impromptu talent show, which deserves its own line.

The impromptu talent show. I don't know how this came about, but we held The First Ever 4th Family Talent Show. We had yo-yo tricks, silly acts, a contortionist, singing and even...eating. Come prepared with a talent next year! Note: Eating no longer qualifies as a talent unless you're going to eat something gross or amazing, like bugs or fire.

Fireworks. I grumped about having to go to the fireworks. I groaned. I tried to think of a way to get out of it. In the end, like every year, I went anyway.

And just like every year, settled in the cool evening by the river, surrounded by my family, watching our children play with their cousins.....

I realized (again....when will I learn?) how much I love this holiday. And why. I like the parade and the picnic and even the fireworks. But my favorite parts are the quiet moments, and the silly ones, and even some of the loud ones: The children playing, visiting with the people I love, waving at smiling strangers in the heat, watching the sun set by the river at the end of the day, and even tucking in tired, cranky, sticky children.

Life is good.

Pictures of last year's Fourth here, featuring the same old dude on the same tractor, and the same firetruck too. Oh yeah, same kids too, just shorter.

Pie

I like pie. If I could eat only one dessert for the rest of my life, it would be pie. This afternoon as we set out the pies, my sister and I began to wonder....

What were the nine kinds of pie Harold liked best?

We decided for Harold. In no particular order:

Apple

Pumpkin

Cherry

Cream cheese cherry (after questioning whether cherry pie and cream cheese cherry pie are variations of the same kind of pie or different pies)

Peach

Berry, which includes all kinds of berry pies. Blackberry and mixed berry and razzleberry are all variations of the same kind of pie and therefore fall under the heading "berry pie."

Banana-coconut cream (a compromise)

Strawberry, even though I believe that fresh strawberries really belong in shortcake and not pie.

And Lemon pie, with whipped cream instead of meringue because meringue is gross.

Mmmmmmmmmmm. Pie.

Off to check the fridge.

Where's Luigi?

We had a perfect Halloween.

Thursday, we carved pumpkins. We don't have the coolest pumpkins on the block, but I still like ours best. I gave each of the fine young gents a Sharpie marker and a pumpkin, and loving husband cut out the faces they drew. I love their little pumpkin faces. Lovely lady the younger declined to participate, but lovely lady the elder freehanded the phenomenal dragon pumpkin. I burned the pumpkin seeds, so no pumpkins seeds this year until I make our Thanksgiving pies. Our eldest lovely lady put the finishing touches on her handmade wolf mask, also phenomenal.

Halloween night. The lovely ladies were out, one to a Halloween birthday party and the other trick-or-treating with friends in the neighborhood across town where they give out big candy bars. The fine young gents trick-or-treated the neighborhood. People would look at them, puzzled, for a moment, then laugh and ask "Where's Luigi?" Then we came home to eat candy and watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Their lovely sister came home with a smile and a huge bag of candy to share.

Life is good.

Wordless Wednesday: Fabulous Fourth (a little late)

Suck it up, buttercup

I was at the park. My middle gent fell down and got a little tiny scrape. Tears and much wailing and gnashing of teeth over barely any blood. So I said....

"Suck it up, buttercup."

A mother gasped in horror and fled with hands clasped over her child's ears.

Ok, so she didn't really gasp in horror and run away. She did kind of look at me funny, though. You know the look, like, "Um, what kind of mother are you? Who says that to a child?"

(In the interests of full disclosure, I should also mention that, as usual, I'd forgotten to brush his hair, and he'd been digging in the dirt, also as usual, so his fingernails were filthy because I don't carry a nail brush in my purse. Plus his pants had a hole in the knee. Doesn't bother me to take him out like that, but I'm not exactly looking like a nominee for Mother of the Year either.)

Anyway, back to "Suck it up, buttercup."

It's not like I said, "Quit your crybaby whining, you little wimp" and socked him in the arm, but I realize that taken out of context it's not exactly the most....P.C. ...thing to say, especially to a little boy.

Here's the context: A friend and I were talking about trying not to baby our children when they get hurt because they're getting older and more capable. When we were kids we were expected to get up, brush off, and try again. She told me about a friend of hers who used to say, "Suck it up, cupcake."

I thought it was funny, So I told the kids about it. And the next time one of the fine young gents fell down--nothing broken or gushing blood--I said, "Suck it up cupcake." And he laughed. After much experimentation, we decided that "buttercup" was the perfect partner to "Suck it up" so we've stuck with it. Although "cupcake" has a nice ring to it, too, so we sometimes go with that one so as not to get in a rut.

Now it's a kind of inside joke. "Suck it up, buttercup" has become a mutually-agreed-upon multi-purpose phrase that means it's not going to hurt forever, I love you, practice makes perfect, I'm sorry you're hurt, do it even if you don't want to, you'll feel better in a minute, "you're braver than you think" (from Pooh's Grand Adventure), and I think you're pretty cool. All rolled in to one.

Life is good. Even when the kids have dirty fingernails and messy hair and holes in their clothes and fall down and cry.

Treat

Trick-or-treat

Pumpkins on our porch. One of the great things about a larger family is that we can line the walk with our carved pumpkins.

"Link, he came to town. He came to save the Princess Zelda." No one over the age of eighteen had a clue about the fine young gents' costumes. Robin Hood? Elves? Peter Pan?

A huge group of preteens started cheering. "Link! Love the costumes!"

And the library lady, the one with a preteen son, knew who they were when we visited the library earlier in the day.

"I just a boy name Yevi who is not a towboy." (Levi--cowboy) This fine youngest gent was not sure whether or not he wanted to be a cowboy. The idea appealed to him, as did the lure of "tandy," but the whole costume idea......not so much. We compromised, and he carried the cowboy hat for his treat bucket.

Man. That kid needs a haircut. I put them off because he hates them so much, but it looks like it's time to bite the bullet, arm ourselves with a pocket full of Smarties and take him in.

We still trick-or-treat around the neighborhood. It seems that since the lovely ladies started trick-or-treat there have been fewer and fewer groups of trick-or-treaters, fewer and fewer houses lit up, fewer children coming to our door. But we still go, and we have a fabulous time showing off costumes and meeting the neighbors and getting candy.


Link in the leaves.

The lovely ladies are "too old" to trick-or-treat. They dressed up, but decided to stay home. I knew this day was coming, but it felt funny going without them. I wasn't quite ready for it.

Tuesday Ten: Happy Halloween!

Ten Things I Enjoy About Halloween

1. Costumes!
Loving husband is going to laugh when he reads this, but I really enjoy making the kids' costumes. So what if every year, a few days before Halloween, I'm swearing at the sewing machine and spending every waking minute in the sewing room and moaning, "How am I going to make that?" I've made witches and fairies, cats and clowns, unicorns and horses, knights and kings and characters from books.

This year, we've got a blue-haired Vaati and two fine young Links (from The Legend of Zelda), Hannah Montana, and "just a boy named Levi". The boy named Levi has been persuaded by promises of candy to dress up as a cowboy named Levi, which involved nothing more complicated on my part than buying a little cowboy hat and finding his cowboy boots. Which is good, because those Link costumes have been a challenge to my limited seamstress powers.

2. Trips to the pumpkin patch.
Sure, we could choose our pumpkins at the grocery store, but there's something about the hay ride and the pumpkin field that makes it just that much more fun.

3. Carving pumpkins.
Every year we carve pumpkins as a family. Loving husband and I make a great pumpkin team. He hates gutting and I stink at carving, so I gut and he carves. He prefers fancy designs and patterns; I have a soft spot for those crooked little faces the gents draw onto the pumpkin with a Sharpie, so we always end up with a nice variety of pumpkin faces on our porch by Halloween.

4. Pumpkin Seeds.
This year I decided once and for all to solve my yearly dilemma-- salt-water soak, or not? I tried one batch each way. The salt-water soak wins. Non-soaked seeds were a tad crispier, but the flavor of the soaked seeds is delicious. I read a great pumpkin seed tip a few years ago: A twenty-minute dry-roast in the oven before tossing the seeds with olive oil and salt and pepper and returning them to the oven to roast until done makes a nice crispy seed. Yum!

5. Candy.

6. Trick-or-treaters.
They're just so stinkin' cute! I love to hear those little voices saying, "Trick-or-treat!"

7. Trick-or-treating.
We trick-or-treat up and down our street. It gives us a chance to say hello to our neighbors, and the kids get to show off their costumes. It's wonderful to go for a family walk, see the kids enjoying one another and the neighbors, laugh together. We're fortunate that loving husband's mother comes to man the door until we split up and I return home with the fine young gents while loving husband continues on with the lovely ladies.

8. The costumes go straight into the dress-up box.
So the fine young gents dress up as their characters for weeks afterward. What a wonderful way to encourage imaginative play.

9. It doesn't involve cooking a special meal.
No turkey, cranberries, ham, pie. As a matter of fact, we usually get take-out because we need to eat early enough that the fine young gents can go trick-or-treating then gorge on candy and still get to bed at a decent time.

10. It's just plain fun.
Most holidays center around family gatherings, which I thoroughly enjoy. Halloween is a community holiday. We welcome young strangers onto our porches and walks, and we're delighted to do so. It gets us out to parties with friends, or out on the streets meeting our neighbors. We get to dress up as our alter egos, visit the pumpkin patch, wind our way through the corn maze. And we get candy! It doesn't get much better than that.

Happy Halloween! Have an exciting and safe holiday!

Fourth of July

Small-town parade: Fire trucks, horses, Boy Scouts on bicycles, old cars.

Candy scrambling.

Eighty-four degrees.

Backyard barbeque: Hot dogs and chicken, potato salad, watermelon, lemonade.

Fireworks on the river.
Life is good.

Cupcakes

The gents and their lovely young sister surprised lovely birthday lady with birthday cupcakes and handmade cards.

Sometimes the simplest gifts are the sweetest.