More 4th of July Fun

We did our fireworks on the 3rd of July, but on the 4th we stayed home and had company. Grandma Toni and Aunt Sarah visited, and Greg made homemade burgers and fries for dinner.

Nick and I, well, we made cookies. It's just what we do. I'm pretty sure when he is an adult, he'll have very distinctive cookie-baking memories. Recently, I've been reading a book called Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, by Michael Ruhlman. It breaks down cooking and baking into simple ratios, and shows you how to cook without a recipe. I like the way it's written, and I've been wanting to try some of the un-recipes in the book. You see, they're not really recipes, just ratios of how much fat/sugar/flour to add to make different things.

The cookies we made for the 4th of July are probably closest to shortbread cookies. They are called "The Essence of a Cookie Coookie" or 1-2-3 Cookies, because of their ratio: 1 part sugar, two parts fat, and three parts flour. I also added just a bit of vanilla and salt. They were delicious.

Basically, we mixed the ingredients by hand, then rolled the dough and put it in the refrigerator. I let Nick cut the cookies (with a butter knife, of course. I'm not crazy) and put on all the sprinkles. He did add a lot of sprinkles.

Henry, unfortunately, is not big enough to help bake cookies. See how upset he looks about that? What a face.

Henry didn't last too long without peeing in his holiday onesie.  I'm not sure how he does it, but he pees outside of his diaper all the time. In the picture below he peed in the front, but lately he's been doing this weird trick where he skips getting his diaper wet and somehow pees up his back, near his shoulder. Seriously, how does a baby pee on the back of his shoulder without getting his diaper wet? It is a mystery to me.

Anyway, Nick and Henry had some quality time with their Aunt Sarah, too.

Then, for dessert, we got to enjoy 4th of July cookies made by a two-year-old. They were pretty good, if not exactly uniform in shape or sprinkles.

Fireworks: "They're So Beautiful!"

On Sunday, we took Nick to see the fireworks in Plainfield. Last year, we got rained out at the Lisle Eyes to the Skies Festival, so we opted for something a little more tame.

Nick loved it! He was very excited, but he didn't quite understand what fireworks were when we told him we were going. I had to show him a video on YouTube. Then he was really eager to go. But first, we had to have dinner. Nick kept asking when it was time for fireworks.

Then he did a happy dance, right there at the restaurant.

I'm glad we went to the (free) Plainfield festival, because they had all of the cool trucks and equipment out. Nick was entranced. He had a very difficult time waiting his turn in line, but he did wait. I had to keep telling him, "It's almost our turn. Good waiting."

He loved sitting in the firetruck.

I think he liked the big lawnmower better, though. He is big into lawnmowers--one of his favorite toys is a plastic lawnmower. Perhaps my child has a future in lawn maintenance.

But the highlight of the evening was, of course, the fireworks display. Henry, of course, slept peacefully through the whole thing, but Nick was very aware. He narrated the entire display, as in: "That's a big one!" "They're so beautiful!" "These are fireworks!"

"Pretty!" "It's dark!" "Look at that!" I wish, now, that I'd gotten him on video talking. It was pretty funny, because he had a comment about every single explosion. All in all, it was a pretty good first fireworks experience for Nick. I wonder if he'll remember it next year. . .

Happy Fourth of July!

Here's Henry in his 4th of July onesie. This is about as happy as he ever looks.   : )  We had a great long weekend, and yesterday Nick got to see fireworks and sit in a real firetruck all in the same night.

I'll post more tomorrow, after I've had some rest. I am very tired tonight, and it's too hard to write with all of our neighbors trying to blow up the subdivision with gigantic illegal fireworks. They are beautiful, however, they are so close it looks like some may burst through our windows. Let's hope not.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day.

4th of July Bummer

This year, we decided to spend our 4th of July down at the Eyes to the Skies Festival in Lisle, IL. We wanted to go somewhere for the evening this year, after the fiasco of last year, when we stayed home and sat in our living room, listening to all of our neighbors try to blow themselves up. There was actually quite a bit of smoke coming in through the windows, and our side yard was filled with the shrapnel of illegal fireworks. Greg worries about fires, seeing as most of our neighbors were far too drunk to walk straight, let alone light up half sticks of dynamite. Plus, even though our subdivision is right behind the police station, I don't believe the police care. Perhaps they're even among the drunken pyromaniacs. So we went to Lisle for the parade, balloons, and fireworks. Here we are at the parade.

We went with Nick's Grandma Toni, and Nick's two aunties (and some friends) came later. At 3:00, the parade started, and we sat and watched and caught candy. This was Nick's first parade, and I think he liked it, especially the part where people throw candy! The first bummer was the heat. It was easily over 90, and even though we had Nick in a hat, slathered with sunscreen and drinking a ton of water and pedialyte, I think the heat was bothering him. The chewy candies helped, though. Also, they were throwing soaking wet foam balls at everyone, and Nick was extremely excited about that. Notice our pile of candy.

He kept pointing to the big trucks and the people marching and dancing along. These little cars were especially impressive. Nick does say, "car," and occasionally, "vroom," when he sees any sort of vehicle. Even a flying carpet.

After the parade, we climbed up a large hill to claim a spot for the balloon launch and fireworks. Greg spread out a giant quilt, and our view was marvelous. They had live music all afternoon, so we relaxed. I have to say, though, that climbing up and down that hill while carrying a toddler is quite challenging. So, we listened to music, visited the craft fair, and waited for the hot air balloons. You see, when I take Nick to the grocery store, when he sees a balloon, he jumps up and down in his seat, pointing and grinning and repeating, "Boon!" So I thought that seeing hot air balloons would be the ultimate fun for him. While we waited, Nick did a little dancing. Apparently he liked this song. Check out his moves.

The second bummer came soon after my sister arrived. She told us they had a sign up front saying that the balloon launch had been cancelled due to high winds. I'm kind of glad, in a way, that Nick was too little to be disappointed. (Just knowing how he reacts when I say the word, "Outside" and he has to wait even 30 seconds, I can't imagine what he'd do with this kind of disappointment.) Oh well, at least there would still be fireworks. We would have a spectacular view from the hill. Nick was fascinated by my sister's camera, and kept pushing the review button to look at pictures she'd taken. 

Greg decided to order some cheese fries, and this is what he got:

Yeah, it's called "Bucket 'O Fries," and it was as gross as it sounded. Nick sure liked it, though.

The third and final bummer was the worst. With almost no warning, around 8:00, it started to drizzle. We put Nick into his stroller with the cover, got out the umbrella, and hoped it would pass. Then the skies opened up. It poured for a good twenty minutes, until we were completely soaked and miserable. Except for Nick. He happily sat , relatively dry, giggling and sticking his hands out of the stroller and randomly exclaiming, "Water!" Yes, Nick, water.

That pretty much put a damper on the evening, so we trudged down the hill and gave up. Bummer #4? Four separate fireworks parties were going on when we got home, one of which was right outside our house, in front of Nick's window, in fact. Until after midnight, many, many booms were heard. Oh, well, better luck next year. I hope your 4th of July was drier than mine.  : )

***I'll continue writing about my Chicago trip tomorrow. I just wanted to show the pictures from the 4th today, when the fun (and the misery) is still fresh in my mind.***