Happy 4th!

Sorry, no pictures today.

The 4th of July was a relatively good day here. We went to Winton Woods at about 8:30 in the morning to go play. I packed up the kids swimsuits and put sunscreen on them, but the weather ended up being a little drizzly and then downright rainy, plus the water park was closed for repair and cleaning. So we played on the playground for a while and walked around.

We then drove to another area in the Woods that had a play barn and farm. The barn was very cool. A whole indoor, although unair-conditioned, play area with the most creative areas. It was a 2 story maze of different things to climb, crawl thru, play on, ball pits, slides, etc. Outside they had little John Deere tractors to ride, and an area with farm animals to look at and pet. Katie was most intrigued by the horses and chickens. And of all things, as we were leaving, Katie asked if she could ride a horse. So of course, we said yes. AMAZINGLY, our cautious child, had her 1st pony ride and rode like a champ with a big smile on her face. And of course, we didn't have the camera.

We stopped at McDonald's on the way home, and while it had an indoor play area, you had to wear socks and we didn't have any with us. Thus began Katie's emotional breakdown. For the long ride home (it does take 30 minutes to get anywhere around here) I heard how it was all my fault that she couldn't play and I'm mean and yelled at her.

Later that day, as Mike listened to the shuttle, MCC dialogue, he spun the kids on the computer chair. In this small apartment, there is limited fun and this is one of their favorite activities. Mid-spin, Nick decided to disembark while Mike wasn't looking, and landed flat on his face. He now has a huge swollen lip.

We ended the day by going to McDonald's again, with socks, and letting the kids play. Nick tried several times to go up into the playground, but paranoid mommy is afraid of him getting stuck or lost or tumbling endlessly down a slide, so I wouldn't let him. The day ended happily enough even though we didn't bother to go look at fireworks.