Fourth of July

For the last 3 years, we have opted to celebrate our freedom by lighting things on fire (meat and explosives) with our fellow residents of the cul-de-sac. This year it was an even larger gathering because each of us invited 3 or 4 other families.

Mark kicked things off early with his second annual garage band. This year's participants were:

Mark on electric guitar, Marty Morrison on bass, and Michael Wheeler on the acoustic.


Richard Timmins on drums:Joel Rownak on keyboard: (along with anyone brave enough to take the mic)


It was very loud and very fun to hear the boys making a ruckus. We morphed from the conservative neighbors with an unsettling amount of canned goods in our garage to the ones that inspire you to look up the non-emergency number for the local police dept.

While the boys were sweating in the garage, we ladies hung out in the kitchen and discussed the various aspects of postpartum weight loss and the finer nuances of the homegrown tomato.


Kim Wheeler
My niece, Chelsea and baby Ethan Wheeler



I admit that my attention was dominated mainly by the Nutter Butter Pie Emilly Rownak brought. It was calling my name in sweet dulcet tones. It did not disappoint. (once again, that is not a cold brewsky on the countertop....just making sure....and I'm thinking we should start "avoiding the very appearance")


As the afternoon progressed, Jennifer Squires (neighbor to the left) and Emily Rownak performed an act of lunacy and filled up hundreds and hundreds of water balloons for the kids. There was a fierce and furious water fight. This would be the first of several wardrobe changes for the day.
After the kids changed into dry clothes and we began grazing on the large quantities of food we had compiled, we helped them decorate their bikes with balloons, streamers and handmade signs. They were very proud and VERY insistent that we watch their every move as they rode in formation around the cul-de-sac.


Ethan with his "let's go fireworks!" sign
Mathew prefers to be shirtless.


Megan with her festive black balloons



Laney watching the action...and I just realized I don't know a single person behind her.


Oh, hey! I know two of these people! Heather's in the blue and Barth is in the green...they're our neighbors to the right
We finally made it to sundown and we lit our 30 bucks worth of roman candles. For the record, roman candles are the BEST fireworks ever. Who doesn't want to launch fireballs right from their very hand?

Megan especially appreciated the thousands upon thousands of "poppers" at her disposal. I've been trying to convince her to wear these pink sneakers for months, and finally she sees their value when they can successfully stomp on chunks of gunpowder wrapped in little twists of paper.
It was a pretty good event. I was "nasty full" and promised myself, once more, that I would never eat again. Then I took a fork to the Nutter Butter Pie leftovers after I put Laney in her crib.

Oh yeah, and there were som pretty beautiful shwoopy clouds behind the house. If I didn't know better, I'd say there was a gorgeous lake and mountain range behind those trees.

I'm pretty sure there's just a field of 9 ft. weeds back there. Today, I'll pretend they're
"amber waves of grain".


Happy Freedom, everybody.