4th of July - 2004
Now, come with me if you will away from the events of our weekend and let me share a little bit of crazy insider Jones fun. If you have your volume up and if the music at the bottom of the page has loaded, you'll be listening to a little Neil Diamond...lucky you! ;) Now personally, I love Neil - a love passed down to me by my father. Even if you're not a lover of Mr. Diamond, surely you'll recognize this patriotic hit. Now, if you were at my house and in the presence of my children, you would hear yelling as the first measures of the song opened up and announced themselves. The yelling would go a little something like this, "I'm the guitar!! I'll be the drums!! I'm on the keyboards!" You get the picture. Everybody plays an "air" instrument whether they're in the kitchen or in the van when this song comes on (and yes we've listened to it many, many times.) Now, you may wonder what instrument I get to play? Well, I'm not on the strings...I get to be Neil Diamond, himself, - complete with my own made up hand motions (as long as I'm not behind the wheel). Yes, we are our own Neil Diamond production of "America," and that's the way we roll...oh yeah.
Okay...enough sharing about our private family concert performances and back to the weekend. We did have concrete plans for the weekend. The hubby has a family reunion every 4th of July weekend (out of town). We were planning to attend and then stay with some friends for the weekend, but after spending almost a week being sick with a nasty sinus infection, I pleaded my case to the hubby to play hooky and just stay home, relax, and do our own thing. Thankfully, he saw things my way. :)
Yes, I did say I have been sick for awhile...too long. That's what happens when you try to stay up late and do homework (because it's quiet after the kiddos go to bed), get up early for class, and try to throw birthday parties in between. After Bear's birthday party, I could feel myself getting sick, and by the weekend I had no voice what-so-ever. All I could do was whisper. To top it off, we had yet another birthday party to throw. On the Sunday following Bear's party we had quite a few members of the hubby's family over, a few from my side, and some scattered friends to celebrate a birthday BBQ for all the kiddos. To me this seemed ideal: 4 kiddos - 1 party - 1 time for people to have to come. However, I didn't get things planned as well as I would've liked to (I think the lack of time thing played in here). I didn't get people invited that I wanted to invite...and well, ya...you get the picture. Of the folks who did come, I think they had fun. I would've loved to have chatted with them...but, alas...I had no voice.
Some of the Jones gang.
The kiddos blowing out candles on the cakes I made.
Present time!
Slip n' slide!
Buddies
Birthday Clown Sundaes! :)
When the sun rose on Tuesday morning, it was officially Bear's 10th birthday! Out of 4 births, he was the only one that decided to come at an odd hour - 4:51AM. Ten years! Ten years of his contagious laughter and wonderful smile. I can't believe how fast it's gone. He now begs to have Lady Gaga on his iPod...I never thought I'd long for the days when we'd watched Barney...repeatedly...all day...every day (or so it seemed). I can't imagine...in another 10 years he'll be...ugh. I can't even think about that!!! I'll be satisfied with my decade old, blue eyed sweetie. I'll try to tie a brick to his head so I can keep his freckled face as close in height to mine for as long as possible!!
Bear - 1 week old
Bear @ 1 yr.
Bear after destroying my lipstick - not yet 2 yrs.
Cozy Coupe! Christmas 2002
Little Bear/Big Bear
Oh, Barney! :)
By Wednesday, I had taken enough guff from this sinus infection and finally surrendered to the doctor and to amoxicillin. By Friday, I was feeling better, but I was just so tired and the last thing I wanted was a strict schedule to adhere to and sleeping in someone else's bed. Thus, I'm back to the beginning of my story. So, we stayed home and I'm so glad we did.
Thursday night we went downtown Des Moines to watch the fireworks after the Yankee Doodle Pops. We let another year go by without hearing the symphony play (I swear we are going to get there one of these years), but we were right next to the river for the fireworks. In fact, we were so close, we had ashes coming down on us. Ha! I can't complain too much - they were absolutely spectacular! Our favorite was the big ending...it was like an endless rain of cupcake sprinkles in all different colors. Simply awesome. :)
The gang!
Crazy waters due to the floodgates opening.
The new Riverwalk looked awesome.
The family checked it out.
It was even more beautiful after dark! :)
Fireworks! This one reminded me of a Pepsi can. LOL
Friday evening we decided to take the kids to their first drive-in theatre experience. We only have 4 drive-ins left in the state and only 1 near us - so why not? It was a BEAUTIFUL night and we had the best time! We all camped out in the back of the hubby's pick-up truck. I can't wait to do it again!! We'll be better prepared next time too (food wise - you try feeding 4 bottomless pits).
We're at the drive-in! Hooray!
Da Man!
Cavster...he picked out his own outfit. :)
Bear n' sucker.
Shay getting settled in.
Goofballs!
Mr. B - ready for the show!
They couldn't quite stay awake! :)
Saturday we slept in and bummed around the house. Papa Edd came and took ALL 4 KIDS to the movie!! GOD BLESS THAT MAN!! We had the house to ourselves for at least a whole 2 hours!!! It was two hours of rare but pure bliss!! I did some baking and cleaning...and there was no fighting. Ahhh!!! The hubby's mom and step-dad stopped by after the family reunion. After they left we had a picnic supper (inside) and then went to watch fireworks with Oma & Papa Edd. Again, we had wonderful weather. The boys tossed the football around before the light show, and even Emmitt seemed to enjoy himself.
Ready for the movie!
Picking flowers before fireworks!
Football!
Shaylen, the photographer capturing Oma!
Photography by Shay
Photography by Shay
Photography by Shay
"Papa" - Photography by Shay
Photography by Shay
Photography by Mom again. :)
Sparklers!
Bear looks to be on fire...rest assured...he is not.
Brothers share.
Look at me, Mom!
Bray & Daddy (Emmitt too)
These two. <3 Just love 'em!
Posing on Papa's truck.
Sunday brought rain...blah. We slept in (again). The hubby is still feeling guilty about missing Church, I guess I am too. We did some cleaning and rearranging in the basement. I went through some boxes of the kids school papers. I know that sounds terrible "boxes of the kids school papers." There was a time I had great difficulty throwing their creations and good papers away, but time has desensitized me, I guess. This year I got smart. I hung on to the things I knew I couldn't live without and everything else went in the trash (when the kiddos were at school, of course). So, when the kids would come home and ask where this was or that was, I would just lie and say, "It's around here somewhere, sweetie," (like at the bottom of the garbage can!!) In a few days they forget and then you lie again about a new round of papers. I know it sounds horrid, but trust me, it's better than seeing the heartbroken looks on their faces when you tell them the truth that you've thrown their paper with the giant smiley face at the top...in the trash. In less offensive news...I found the photo box full of Bear's baby pictures I thought I lost a year ago. I've been beating myself up for over a year and guilting myself into not only being a lying mother...but also a forgetful one who would lose something so precious as irreplaceable baby photos of her second son. I was so dang happy that I actually cried...perhaps they were tears of relief to know that I'm just back to being the lying mom. :)
Uncle Sam Cavy. The humidity clouded my lens.
Happy 4th of July!! :)
Bear & Emmitt feeling patriotic!
Getting some exercise in the rain.
Love the rain gear! :)
Today we slept in again (tomorrow's going to be a rude awakening) and the hubby even brought me breakfast in bed (niiiiice). So, today, I scanned photos and watched the hubby play giant checkers with the kiddos. I should've done some homework, but I guess it just wasn't in the cards. And this evening we loaded the kiddos up and headed to DQ for a treat and then off to watch the "not worth it" fireworks. I'll tell you what was worth it - in the silence of the night (with other people also trying to watch the fireworks), Cavy starts singing out of nowhere, "Whoa-oh, Living on a Prayer!" Ha!! Hey, at least he was on key. ;) With all joking aside, we had such an awesome weekend together, and I can't help but think we enjoy these freedoms because we live in America...and because of all the service men and women that have fought for and defended that freedom. God Bless America (and God Bless you too!)
Turtle sundae! :)
Oreo Blizzard!
Cherry coated cone (although there's not much left of it).
Until next time...
Blessings~
S
