I think someone said today that our country is 229 years old. I was too lazy to figure it out myself, but the figure seems right. The nice part about today was that Cris and I did not have to go to work and we had no plans other than to enjoy just being at home. I got up early and went to the grocery store to see what leftovers there might be on July 4th. Suprisingly the shelves were being rapidly refilled with sale items and fresh fruits and veggies, and meat. I felt sort of proud of myself for making it in before 8:00am. I drank a lesuirely cup of coffee as I slowly browsed the multitude of aisles offering me things I did not really need but they sure looked good. Like smores', now I really didn't need them, but I convinced myself that the kids would have fun making them tonight after dinner. So I quickly found the graham crackers both the plain and the cinnamon sugar varieties (can't have too many graham crackers in the house right?) Then I went went searching for marshmellows, you know the Brand name ones, cause the generic just don't melt the same or taste the same...or so the kids say. Then I discovered that everyone else had the same idea and all the Hershey's chocolate bars were gone off the candy aisle!!!!!!!!! I searched high and low for Hershey's chocolate bars and finally found a few left over bars on one of the abandoned check stands.
Thankfully I didn't have to wait long in line. Albertson's was happy to take my $200 plus buck- a-roos for the 4th of July BBQ goodies and groceries for the next week or so. I had to ask for paper bags instead of plastic (the only plastic bags worth keeping are those produced by Target...now that's a plastic bag!!) Anyway, whenever I ask for paper I get the irritated look by the checker and the bagger and they hate it even more when I ask that they please bag my cold and frozen items together. One would think I asked for the moon!!
When I got home Cris dutifully unloaded the trunk of the car and the back seat. He looked at me as if I might have lost my mind, but then I sweetly reminded him that we did have company for over a week and I had not been to the grocery store since they left.
I had great plans for the afternoon BBQ...potato salad, salsa and chips, cucumber and pepper salad, deviled eggs, garlic bread, BBQ Ribs and Marinated Tri-tip, strawberry shortcake, and banana pudding, and lemon iced tea. Everyting came together lovely. I had red, white and blue candles (which we didn't use), red, white, and blue baskets that held the chips, utensils, napkins, and garlic bread. I used a white table cloth and navy blue placemats that I've had forever to decorate the table. Not Martha Stewart style, but it looked festive and the kids seems to enjoy it.
In the meantime Cris put together our cheapo depot gazebo and we had shade and a picnic table in the back yard and be brought our our mini stereo to play some music. Frances invited a friend over from school to join us and so we sat and stuffed ourselves and chatted and stuffed ourselves some more.
Gillian slept through it all. Nathan enjoyed just wreaking havoc on the table, and the back yard, Erin was just enjoying eating her BBQ ribs. She had BBQ sauce from head to foot. So cute. Thankfully there is an outdoor sink in our backyard so it made cleaning her up quick and easy.
We decided against going to see fireworks this year. Mostly because we didn't want to mingle in the crowds. I was also afraid that Nathan and Gillian wouldn't care much for all the noise. All in all I'd say we had a pretty good day.
One little glitch...there's a hole in the drain pipe under the sink in the kitchen so that needs to be replaced....Guess we'll have to use the old fashioned method of washing dishes outside. Hmmmm, I think my children might appreciate a lesson in the fine art of dishwashing by hand outside. Let's see how long that lasts !!
Cheers all. God Bless America!!
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