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I’ve finally uploaded our pictures from the 4th of July. Wanna see?
We enjoy going up to my parents’ town, West Point, for the festivities. They have a cute town picnic on the 3rd, which lead to what I think is the best photo of the holiday, William With Watermelon:
The town picnic’s entree that year was sloppy joes. It wasn’t until we had sat down to eat that I noticed that Jeffrey had rejected the meat in favor of his own original creation:
Mmmmm! Delicious cookieburger! Now that’s nutrition! Actually, in truth, Jeffrey could only stomach about one bite of this. Too sweet, even for him.
There was a stage near our picnic site wherein you could see the winners of the West Point Beauty Pageant perform their talents (the runner-up sang “The Greatest Love of All” and wore sparkly earrings so gigantic that they could be seen by us in the nosebleed section). However, Eleanor and Jeffrey preferred climbing this really cool tree to listening:
The next morning we trotted out to see the West Point parade. My dad usually drives a truck in the parade, and this is the second year in a row that Jeffrey has been allowed to ride with him. Check out the glee:
William’s favorite part of the parade was Miss Utah Rodeo . . . or rather, her horse.
The local LDS missionaries also walked and rode bikes in the parade, which was something new this year. They looked overwhelmingly happy to be there:
Brian, however, considers the quintessential parade photo to be this one:
A toddler sucking down an Otter Pop while giant tractors stroll by in the background. That’s Americana, baby!
The rest of the day was spent cooking by myself — and I found it rather blissful. The kids were entertained by Brian and Uncle Alex while I made cherry pies and baked beans in my mother’s peaceful quiet kitchen while watching The Devil’s Disciple and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington on television (the movie that celebrates congressional inertia!). While the pies baked, I got to read The Namesake. And a good time was had by all.
Last week, in order to celebrate my birthday, we held a backyard circus. What’s that, you say? Our backyard is always a circus? Well, you can just keep your snarky comments to yourself, Mr. Smarty-Pants Reader.
This event works thusly: we invite friends with kids over for a barbecue, and afterwards the kids put on a circus routine in the backyard before a makeshift “stage” (read: sheet clothespinned to a rope). Costumes are makeshift, usually involving lots of swimsuits, and enthusiastically performed. This is the first time we’ve held such an event since we moved from Pittsburgh; in years past we’ve had a dancing bear act that involved an old Winnie-the-Pooh costume, and a rather awesome Tattoo Man created with body crayons.
This year Jeffrey was a magician, using my old Fisher Price Magic Set that my parents gave me when I was seven. He was SO EXCITED to be able to wave his wand over the little plastic dove and make its egg disappear.
Eleanor was a bareback horse rider. She bounced on stage, did a leap across its back, and then did a flip (with my help).
William was supposed to be a strongman, with barbells Brian made by attatching black balloons to the ends of empty paper tower tubes. We had practiced with him, teaching him to pick up a “barbell” in each hand and give a mighty grunt. But at performance time, he must have been rather enthralled with the kids who had been acrobats and tumblers, because he simply marched up to the stage and did this:
Some kinda yoga pose? Brian brought out the barbells, but Wimmy waved them away (“No no no!”) and went right back to his odd little position, on all fours with one leg stretched out behind him. Everybody just about died laughing, especially when the kids who had done a juggling routine picked up the barbells and began tossing them into the air.
Perhaps next year he should be a contortionist.
