4th of July, 2016

Our 4th of July weekend was nice and laid back and strange. We were initially supposed to go to a BBQ at a friend's house, but with Will getting the croup and me not wanting to infect other people's children and whatnot, we stayed home. We were down, but not out though! Everyone rallied and we had watermelon.

Even Will wanted in on that action.

Molly isn't a fan of watermelon so much as she is a fan of Will.

We are all big fans of eating this baby. He's so deliciously chunky, it's hard not to. Although Molly has been known to take a literal bite every now and again so we have to watch her a bit more closely.

All of the fruit chopping led to my somewhat healthy fruit flag.

We had a picnic lunch in the living room (a whopping six feet away from our dining room) and Sam was ECSTATIC. Quite possibly one of his favorite picnics since it involved Doritos.

Yes, Steve's plate is sad. We all reminded him how sad it was while we ate Doritos. Will got angry that no one offered him Doritos and moved on to the dining room to eat his baby food like a proper person. After lunch we headed out to some parks. Steve and the kids went down first and I rounded up the random extras we'd need while we're out (water, sunscreen, vodka, my purse, extra diapers, etc.). I came down the stairs to the sight of our landlord lying on the ground next to our steps, Sam and Molly lying next to him, all three watching some sort of youtube video on his phone (Steve chaperoning with Will behind them). Nothing really surprises me around here anymore. After the video finished, we got the kids in the car and Landlord Steve invited us to a 4th of July BBQ that evening. We said sure and left for the park. "So nice of them to include us. They probably think we don't have any friends. I wonder what their friends are like. I'll make another fruit flag."

Down by the bay, the kids greeted the ice cream man and placed their order and of course they all know each other by name. Turns out that Daddy almost always gives in to ice cream requests when he takes them for a jog in the evenings. (And no wonder the kids think I'm the damn Grinch. How can I compete with ice cream??)

The ginger baby and I stayed in the shade while those three roasted on the rocks watching boats. After finishing their ice cream, we decided we'd better find a playground with some shade. That sun is powerful and the breeze is misleading.

After the big shaded park (and some truly unfortunate car naps) we arrived home and got the kids showered and ready for the BBQ. We figured we'd show a little late and leave a little early since we have three prime time excuses, but Landlord Steve texted "Let start July 4 BBQ" so it was go time. We went downstairs and into their backyard (!!) only to find that we were THE ONLY GUESTS. Cue my shock (and relief that we didn't cancel). Stella (Landlord Steve's wife) immediately took Will from me and instructed me to sit down and eat. I helped the kids put ketchup on their hot dogs and had two sips of wine and surveyed this camping table that we were all going to eat at. I'd seen some like it in Korea and my oh my are they flimsy little things. Not even sure my big bottom could fit on one of those little seats.

Annnnnnnd about 3 minutes after I took this photo, the entire table collapsed. Because of course. Sadly, in those three minutes, red wine had been poured and set on the table, so there ended up being a few broken glasses, lots of spilled wine and Gatorade, and one completely soaked Molly. She had a small cut on her foot, so while everyone cleaned up, I took Molly upstairs to change her. I made a few jokes about how everyone was super lucky that *I* did not sit down at that table because Sam might have been catapulted into the neighbor's yard, Molly had more wine on her shorts than I had in my system, etc. She never once cracked a smile so then I asked her if she had a boo boo somewhere that I couldn't see. She started crying and blurted out, "I sad because it's ALL MY FAULT!" Bless her heart. I explained that no, it was not her fault, the table was incredibly rickety and it was really only a matter of time before that thing imploded. Apparently one of the legs (directly below Molly's seat) had not been fully extended and locked into place. Thus, the collapse. She recovered quickly with a princess band aid and some clean clothes and we headed back down. The kids then watered drowned all of their outdoor plants, had races in the grass, watched some television, had more ice cream, and generally delighted in the fact that Steve and Stella would do anything to make them happy. Spoiled rotten. Will, who normally screams whenever Stella comes near him, happily resided in her arms for the majority of the evening and seemed oblivious to my existence. Landlord Steve kept offering me more and more meat. And beer. And shrimp. Finally, Will needed to go to bed so we made our grand exit. So sorry for almost destroying your BBQ, I hope Stella's arms make a full recovery, we gotta go fill our Lipitor prescription, thank you for having us, and letting us live above you while making a ton of noise, amen.