Bacon, Battle, Bang!

OK, if you have read my blog for any time at all you know the drill when it comes to Independence Day.  It is always the same, and one of our family's favorite holidays.  We always have a crazy big breakfast, followed by a big water fight, and of course, the day ends with fireworks.  It works for us, and so it will always be that way.

Breakfast is a lot of work, and my family is not really great at doing anything early, but half the fun is making breakfast together, even if it isn't all ready until almost noon.  We all nibble and that seems to work out fine.

While we wait, Lisa and her daughter Andi play with a WWII era flag puzzle that I scored at a garage sale recently.  It is really cool, and it has all the pieces!

Did I mention BACON?  The brown sugar bacon always plays a major role at every 4th of July breakfast we ever have.  Seriously!  Don't you just want to lick the screen?

Look at that golden salty sweet and gooey goodness!  Those sugary strings are the BEST!  Yeah, baby!

This is what we are talking about!!!

(Note how the platter of bacon is disappearing even before I am finished taking the pictures.)

We wait all year for this!

Feast...  Digest...

then....

WAR!

If for me the 4th is all about the bacon, to the kids it is all about the water war!  As always, it is kids versus adults.

As the years pass the kids get bigger, and scarier!

But we just get more experienced so we manage just fine.  That's right, Grandma. Kink that hose!

Another tradition:  Alex dumping bucket, after bucket, after bucket of water on Grandma's head.  Every year!  My devilish child get great pleasure out of soaking his grandmother, and the attack is relentless during the whole battle!

Poor Grandma!  Just how wet can one woman get?

Finally, the adults declare victory (we always do, and so we always win.  The kids never declare victory.  They would fight all day if they could, and so we always declare victory, and thus always win! Then they call us poor sports and complain that we are wimps because we don't want to battle for hours on end.  We don't care, being the winners, of course.)

Yep, I really get into this holiday.

This year we tried something new - Pop Rocks cookies that we found on Pinterest.  Fun, but the pop rocks baked inside didn't work.  Next time we'll just sprinkle them on the top of regular frosted cookies.

This year the City of La Quinta did their own fireworks for the first time, so we were excited to go.  But it was crazy.  There were tons of people at the park where they advertised the fireworks would be, but before the show, nobody quite knew where the fireworks would actually be, and so people were set up facing all different directions.  When they actually started they were behind a bunch of trees and buildings and too far away even though we were right where they told us to be.  Oh well.

It was still a great, great Independence day!

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day this year, we went to the Joshua Tree cemetery, where Dennis' dad is buried to enjoy the memorial services that were put on by the Marines at the 29 Palms Marine base.

It was excellent.

The speeches were short, but profound, and the ceremony was precise and done with the highest of honor for those men and women who have died for the cost of our freedom, and for their families that have sacrificed so much as well.

It was so touching, and I was so grateful that my boys got to experience this!  Out here in this small cemetery in the desert we felt the same profound feelings that we felt at Arlington last summer, and at Normandy several years ago.  The awe and gratitude are the same. How grateful we are!

The ceremony was concluded with a 21 gun salute and the releasing of the doves.

A visit to grandpa.  Though he was never a soldier, he loved America and the old red, white, and blue SO much!  A true patriot through and through.

After the ceremony, the community had a BBQ, and there were games and such.  We had a great time with our cousins and relatives.

A moving memorial day service to honor our fallen, and time with loved ones.  Now that is how Memorial Day should be spent.

This was one memorial day we will always remember.

Teenagers!

So, it is official!  With Derek & Dylan's birthday we have doubled the number of teenagers in our house!  Four teenagers!  Crazy stuff!  I knew this was coming since they were wee babes.  I remember having that horrifying thought often as I gazed upon my four little guys - four babies will someday be four teenagers!

But as it turns out, I am loving having four teenagers!  They are really great kids and I have a lot of fun with them (most of the time.)  I can say this, having four teenagers is a whole heck of a lot easier than four in diapers!

So I know I already posted about their Hunger Games birthday party (you can read about that here), but on their actual birthday they got to open a few presents too.  Obviously they were loving the lacrosse sticks and roller blades, amount other things.

The we surprised Dylan with his bog surprise - a new surfboard!  Dylan has become a pretty good surfer in the past few years, but the foam costco beginner board that he has been using is just not cool enough, apparently, so he has been begging for a real surfboard.  Well, guess what I found at a garage sale?  This totally awesome Novak surfboard with the cool blue flames!  It totally looks like Dylan and is the perfect size!  And I got it for $40!  Kowabunga, dude!  Just in time for summer!

Derek was not forgotten either.  He got exactly what he wanted - only it is not as exciting to take a picture of his big fact gift card to B&N.  Lets just say, I spent WAY more on Derek than I had to on Dylan.  I have yet to find a loaded gift card at a garage sale.  I think they were both happy.

I love those twiners so much!  Having twins has been a blast so far, and they both assured me that they would not suddenly turn rotten just because they became teenagers.  I am going to hold them to that promise.  (Of course, I don't expect them to slowly turn rotten either.)

Oh, and Luke found a very, very big bug. 

Happy Birthday Derek and Dylan!

Big Fish!

Dennis had a birthday in June and of course we made him a cake and he opened a few presents.  You must know that Dennis is one of those people that is really hard to give gifts to.  I always struggle to come up with something that would be perfect for him.  This year was no different.  I couldn't come up with anything.

But my parents did!

They gave him a book on grilling (OK, he already owns that book, it's true.  See what I mean?).  But then they brought out one more gift...

It was long and cold and wrapped in butcher paper.

Surprise!  It was a huge fresh wild Atlantic Salmon!  The kids, including my brother's son, Jon, got a big kick out of the big fish!

Meanwhile, the boys were having fun playing with my cute nephew Kyle.  Doesn't Nate look like he is having fun?

The next night Dennis got busy playing with his new present.  He opened up his grilling book, opened up the butcher paper, and got busy.

I say that there is nothing is as sexy as a man in the kitchen.

He slathered the inside of the fish with some fresh herb butter, and stuffed it with sliced lemons and dill before throwing it on the grill.  How pretty is that?!  Our mouths were watering.

While we waited for the fish to cook, Dennis got to open some more gifts.  Luke gave him a paddle ball , which he was pretty excited about, of course, and the "man cave" sign is for his upcoming man cave someday when we build our new house, though we should probably just put it on our front door right now, because sometimes that is how this place feels!

The boys showered him with homemade gifts.  They love their daddy!

Finally, dinner was served!  It was beautiful and delicious!    That was some incredible fish.  So glad Dennis was willing to share he birthday present with everyone.  We all won.

And just for that, Dennis got another birthday cake - this time his favorite - an ice cream cake!

Happy Birthday, Dennis!

Our Last First Graduation

Well, this was it.  And end of an era and, for our family, anyway, a long standing tradition of the first official graduation - the Kindergarten Graduation!  All six boys have gone through the same kindergarten and all performed in the same exact program.  Luke, our youngest, was finished with kindergarten and finally having his turn!

At our elementary school, the graduation is not really a graduation, per se, but a performance.  All the kids sit in front of the stage and go through the school year, singing songs that they had learned for each month of the school year.  Every child gets a part in one of the songs where they get to wear a costume and be on the stage.  It's kind of a big deal.

I remember Alex was a very serious Abe Lincoln in a tall hat, marching solemnly in place as the kids sang about old Abe Lincoln.  I think (I might be wrong) that the twins might have been dancing peanuts in the "Found a Peanut" song, and Caleb poured hot water up and down the Silly Chicken's leg.  But I will never forget Nathan, who WAS the quintessential Silly Chicken, and he did a commanding performance as he squacked his lungs out during his debut on the stage.  A star was born.  People are still talking about it.

Luke got to be a field mouse. Little Bunny Fufu (his buddy Maverick) kept coming along and bopping him on the head, and he would collapse.  He was very convincing.  He is quite the thespian, I believe.  I laughed.  I cried.

My boys have all done this program thanks to these two amazing kindergarten teachers that all of my boys have been so lucky to have one or the other - Mrs. Karlquist and Mrs. Cathcart.  They are absolutely THE BEST kinder teachers anywhere! We love them!

It was a great show and we had such a great time watching it - again.  It seems like Alex was just singing in it, and now he is a junior in high school!  Something tells me it won't be very long before Luke is a junior in high school too!

I just feel like kindergarten is a magical time, especially this kindergarten program that all my boys were lucky enough to be in - first at Ford School, and now at Reagan (different schools, but the same exact kinder).  I am kind of sad that for the VanBuskirk family, there will never be another Kindergarten graduation program.

Grandma and Grandpa came out to enjoy the show too.

We love you Mrs. Karlquist and Mrs. Cathcart.  Thanks for making school magic for my boys!

I love you Luke!  You are getting so big!  First grade, here we come!

A SWEET Valentines Day!

Oops.  One more holiday I forgot.  Valentines Day.

Usually my boys hand stamp all of the valentines that they bring to school, but this year we decided to try something new - photo valentines with real lollypops.  They were so easy and were a big hit!  Caleb's teacher stuck his on the white board and it stayed there in front of the class the rest of the year.

I had a very special treat!  My dear friend, Diane Caress, who I have visit taught for years, called me out of the blue and asked me if she could bring me something.  She brought over this amazing red velvet cheesecake... just because!  

It was truly incredible!  That woman's cheesecake are famous, and this one really was spectacular!  What a real treat.  Thanks you Diane.

(On a side note:  I thought that it was such a nice idea that I decided to make this same cheesecake to surprise another friend. 

FAIL.  

It was a total disaster.  You wouldn't believe it.  First, while it was mixing, I opened the cupboard above it and the cupcake wrappers fell out of the cupboard and right into the mixer as it was spinning away!  The problem was that they were white wrappers and it was a white cheesecake mixture at the point, and my reflexes are not quick.  I thought I had fished out most of the papers, but when I poured the cheesecake, I discovered more  bits of torn paper.  Grrr. And then I put it in the oven to bake.  And, long story short, I decided to run a quick errand  while it was baking, got in a fender bender of all things,  and by the time I got home the cheesecake was very brown and cracked from baking way too long.  So I mean it when I say my cheesecake, that looked nothing like this beautiful perfect specimen of Diane's, was a total FAIL!  She is a cheesecake genius, and I appreciate that now more than ever.)

I had a bit more success here.  My friend Shari is a chocolate making diva, so we decided to get together and make chocolates for Valentines day this year.

  It was a very warm day which does not lend itself to making chocolates, so we shut the blinds and put the AC all the way down as cold as it would go in her guest room, and dipped our chocolates in there.  We called it our chocolate cave!  It smelled so good in there!  I think every home should have a chocolate cave!

We dipped homemade fudge, homemade butterfingers, Nutter-Butter truffles, and dipped pretzels in the extra chocolate.  They all turned out delicious.  And it was so fun to do.  Thanks Shari.  A girl can't have a sweeter valentines day than lollipops, cheesecake, and a chocolate cave, can she?