American Pie

On the morning of the fourth of July we had a minor freak accident where I was playing with the girls and tossing them onto the bed, only I didn't know Lucy had a metal bell in her hand with a star shaped top (apropos) and when she landed next to Polly the star cut Polly right across her nose. It was so scary with her suddenly screaming and the blood flowing like crazy all over her face and my white nightie, and when I briefly nursed her to calm her, a blood clot started coming out of the inside of her nose so for a second I thought it had cut through! Although I could quickly ascertain that it was pretty shallow, and the clot from the impact, not the cut, I still made Darin borrow Nancy's car to jot from work to tell me if he thought I should take her to ER. Also my dad returned from the errands he was running for me, and my Mom threw on some clothes and took a break from her preparations for her big Fourth of July barbecue to come offer moral support. The bleeding has long since stopped and Polly fell deeply asleep against my chest while I talked to an advice doctor on call for the weekend; everyone agreed she'd be fine without stitches and the doctor recommended I try liquid bandage. Which is really yucky, by the way, and is basically just super glue and smells like crazy nail polish and I'll not be using it again.

Polly was in high spirits from the moment she woke up and never complained about that nose again.

I kind of wanted to call this post "Red, white and blood" but it didn't impact our whole day significantly enough. Thank goodness!

I was able to put on a clean dress, send the bloody clothing home with my momma the laundry maestra, send everyone back about their business, and get down to my duty for the day: making a huge fruit salad.

My mom and her husband Jack like to host a big family BBQ for fourth of July. She makes her classic potato salad and also peach pie from the delicious peaches from our friends' local orchard. They even invite my dad cause that's how chill everyone is. In fact behind me in the picture below are my dad and Jack having a good ole time. 

Scouty showed up in the most pristine antique red-white-and-blue baby dress. (Not so pristine later after some good old garden digging, but it held up well)

Turns out Jack's friend Taylor from his work had spent time in Indonesia in the exact same city where Jack once lived. They both wore their Indonesian shirts in solidarity.

It was so hot and humid that day that my mom and the kids took turns spraying everyone with the mister.

Brownie heaven!

Tootie "licking the platter clean."

Fourth of July means this happiest-girl-on-earth is about to turn THREE!!!

The kids were so dirty, sticky and grimy that at dusk my mom and I made an impromptu outdoor hose-bath for them, then dressed them in random clean stuff I had in my diaper bag and brought them inside for some quiet time.

Just before dark we all joined Jorden, Becky and their boys in the parking lot of our local supermarket to watch the fireworks above the fairgrounds. The kids were most excited about clambering about the back of the car, finding random water bottles and trying out each other's carseats. Scout had finally started walking again after her bout with a toe surgery and full leg cast, so she and Polly held hands and walked up the Raley's parking lot much to the spectators' admiration. Utah was more patient and walked a little more slowly for Scout to keep up, they were so sweet together and Addie told me he says Scout is his best friend. All the little cousins are so adorable together and lately I am more and more glad that they have each other and will grow up close as siblings.

Let the fireworks begin!!!

None of the little ones was even a tad scared of the fireworks and in fact, they were mightily impressed. Em says Scout's been talking about it for a week now: "Moon! Lights! Yellow! Hurray!" 

It was the longest day and the hottest night and they fell into deep slumber to dream of peach pie and exploding lights in the sky. They didn't even wake up when our neighbors set off the world's loudest illegal firecrackers at 1:30 a.m. right outside our bedroom windows.

Happy July! American friends: let us never forget, let us always pursue the freedoms we sought, fought and died for long ago.