A 4th of July Breakfast Tradition, Well, Sort Of.

For year now, the Signs family has had a favorite tradition to commemorate the call for American Independence, the Revolutionary War and subsequent victory that ensured our liberty.  That tradition, is a fabulous 4th of July breakfast followed by a water fight - well, a water war really, between the kids and the adults.

However, this year it turned out that we spent the 4th of July in San Diego, so we thought we would have to forgo the tradition this year.  Well, the kids were gravely disappointed at the thought of not getting to stick it to the parents this year.  So we decided that we would have our traditional 4th of July breakfast for Family Home Evening Monday night - thus the 4th breakfast, turned out to be dinner on the 6th.  Close enough, right?

The War was ON again!

The kids were so excited!  They spent the afternoon building up their arsenal - stockpiling all the water guns they could find into their playhouse.  Then they concentrated on the ammo - water balloons of course.  They sure filled a lot, but I think they broke most of them while training at target practice.

Finally it was dinner time, therefore, time for breakfast!  Mom made the brown sugar bacon and Lisa scrambled the eggs, while Dennis manned the waffle irons.  We have a traditional big round waffle iron, but the demand was for my parents rectangle waffles because the kids discovered that they could make flag waffles with blueberries for the star field, whipped cream and strawberries for the stripes, and a strip of bacon for the flag poll.  Clever kids!  I bet THAT will be a tradition now too!

After our delicious breakfast/dinner, we were all ready for a fight.  NOT!  Well, the kids were all ready for a fight - chanting their war cries and rallying behind their self-designed battle flag, while the adults could do nothing but sit and watch episode after episode of The Revolution documentary I recorded from the History Channel while we waited for our food to digest.  Finally, the adults relented, realizing that war really was our only option.  We stormed their fortress, took some of their weapons, and the battle began in earnest!

War is rough!  I have no pictures of the battle because my camera would certainly have been the first causality.  I wish I could have snapped a few shots though, because it was hilarious!  The fighting was fierce.  Father against daughter, mother against son, grandparent against grandchild.  Heart wrenching to see a family so torn apart by the ravages of water war.

After a while we realized that Dennis was not in the fray.  That seems to be another tradition.  Dennis always seems to disappear when the battle begins.  He was in the backyard this time, cleaning the grill, when we all - adults and children alike, lit into him at once, completely soaking him as he just stood there, hunched over, trying to protect his face from the constant torrent of water.  He really was pathetic, but he deserved it!  

The battle lasted a good 45 minutes, but when we called it quits, Dylan was very upset.  "Already!?"  He had planned to fight for a good 2 hours!  He thought we were wimping out after only 45 minutes.  Whew!  I could not have lasted that long.  Poor Dylan.

So we had our traditional 4th of July breakfast and water fight after all, because nothing should come between a family and a great tradition!

Fourth at the Fair

We spent our Fourth of July in Del Mar at the San Diego County Fair.  Dennis and the boys joined us from scout camp, and it was so fun to all be together again.

It is a great fair, and is SO much better than our Date Festival - more vendors, more food, more everything... especially more people!  We were crammed in there shoulder to shoulder.  it was Nuts!

First we went to see the farm animals.  The buildings where the animals were were very clean and nice.

Caleb got an eyeful as he came up behind a cow doing her #2 business.  Oh my!

The twins even ran into their Lego Robotics teacher, Ms. Liberty.

Our favorite building was the woodworking/gem building, where the boys were fascinated by watching woodworkers doing their thing: turning toy tops on a lathe, making children's chairs, and cutting wood into shapes with a scroll saw. They gave the boys the pieces that they had cut out for a souvenir. They were also fascinated by the amazing wood furniture and boats that people had made, as well as the glowing rocks under the black light.

We had a frugal lunch under the archways of one of the beautiful buildings there.  The architecture at the fair is lovely and there is a lot of greenery.

We were really strapped for cash, unexpectedly, on this trip, because of the scam and consequent stopping of our debit card that I wrote about in an earlier post.  We had no card, and since it was a holiday, no access to cash, so we had to do the fair on the cheap - meaning NO rides (OK by me) and NO fair food (bummer!).   

Luke is growing a mustard-stache.

One of my favorite parts of the fair are the vendor booths.  So much to see and spend $ on.  Of course, my sister Natalee, kept turning her head for things like sewing machines, and the boys were fascinated by the toys and magic.  It was the cup cakes, and gleaming jewelry that caught my eye.  I found a booth where the guy makes his own fused glass and then uses the pieces to make beautiful pendants.  I am fascinated by glass, and his stuff was beautiful!

I also really enjoyed thew fine arts/ photography building.  the entries were really top quality and displayed SO much nicer than at our fair.  I would NEVER win an award for my paintings at this competition, so I should be grateful that our county fair is so much smaller.  It was all very inspiring though.

Now, this is where the fun Fourth at the Fair gets ugly.

The clouds rolled in, and it started to get chilly.  It was 7pm, and the fireworks were to go at 9pm.  Everyone started whining that they were cold, and they had all left their sweaters in the car.  Nathan had a cold, and had also left his medicine in the car.  So, what does a mom do?  She goes back to the car to get what her kids need, right?  Well, of course, and that is just what I did.  Only the car was far away in a remote lot, and we had been shuttled in.  Caleb and Derek wanted to come along, so we elbowed our way through the thickening crowds (they were coming to see the fireworks) and finally found our way out of the fair to the shuttle stop.  The Shuttle was a big red double-decker bus, retired from its former life in London.  The boys got a big kick out of riding upstairs.  I was just happy that we got there just in time, and didn't have to wait long to ride back to our car.  Back at the car, we grabbed what we needed - the sweaters, Nate's medicine, the glow necklaces - and hurried back to the shuttle stop to wait for the next shuttle.  And wait.  And wait.  And wait.  We waited for over an hour!  Finally the same double-decker bus comes.  She is the only shuttle!  Unbelievable.  We all crowd on and she takes us, very, very slowly, through ridiculous traffic back to the fair.  By now it is dark, and just as we are standing in line for security, the fireworks start.  We hustle to where Dennis said there were watching the fireworks, but they have the way to get there all blocked off, and are herding people away, back behind the livestock buildings.  We hurry along, with everyone else, assuming they are leading is to where we can see the fireworks.  But they only lead us to a dead end because they had it all blocked off there too.  I could see the field where my family was sitting, but had no way of getting to them.  We were behind a building, and the only fireworks we could see were the ones very highest in the sky.  I love fireworks, and was very disappointed, but I was more disappointed for poor Caleb and Derek who were shorter than me, and saw even less of the fireworks.  It really made me mad that they herded us off to a place where we couldn't see anything like that!

The stupid thing about it all was by that time, it wasn't even cold anymore, and nobody needed the sweaters that I had just spent 2 hours to go get.  And it wasn't until we got back to the car that Nathan asked for his medicine.  I was just trying to be a good mom and that's what I get.  Oh well.

We took the same double-decker bus back to our car (the only ride my kids got to go on at the fair!).  On the bus ride home, Dennis did his best to rescue me from my foul mood by surprising me with a box of cinnamon rolls that he somehow found the funds for!  Yay!  I love the cinnamon rolls at the fair, and it worked to pretty much turn things around for me.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

What's big and round and goes "pop, pop"? Fireworks and popcorn balls, of course.

Alex made us some big popcorn balls, a tradition, for our fireworks viewing. We drove to the church, walked over to the COD football field, and got there just in time to see the show. We were so close that we really had to lay on our backs to see it properly!

Here is our recipe for popcorn balls:

1 cup light corn syrup

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 can sweetened condensed milk

3/4 cup butter

a big bowl of popped popcorn

peanuts (optional)

Mix and cook first 5 ingredients to a medium boil. Cook to a soft ball stage. Fold into popcorn and nuts, and form into balls. Cool on waxed paper.

I love fireworks. I still find them inspiring! I love that we celebrate Independence Day this way!

Wet Star-Spangled Breakfast

Every year we have our traditional Signs family breakfast and water fight! The whole idea is to celebrate the birth of this great nation by getting as stuffed and soaked as humanly possible. This year we accomplished that very well.

Grandpa cooks scrambled eggs for an army! Check out that enormous cast iron frying pan!Here's the mouthwatering menu :Giant Belgium waffles with strawberries, blueberries, whipped cream and incredible homemade buttermilk syrup, scrambled eggs, sweet and salty brown sugar bacon, sticky butterscotch monkey bread, tons of fresh fruit with cinnamon dip, milk and juice. My mouth waters just thinking about it! Hey Nathan, where is your fruit? Fruit is healthy, you know, and its really important to always eat healthy.Caleb makes his own version - licorice waffles. Why not? Strawberry licorice -that's almost fruit.Farai, Kylee, and Miclele, my high-kicking friends from tae kwon do, took a break from a hot day of moving to join us for a big meal and a turn on the massage chair. They did NOT want to get back to work after that.Farai insisted he needed to go before the water fight began. Chicken? -um, I mean wise! Ya, that's it, wise. (Note to self: it is never smart to call a black belt 'chicken'). But he couldn't resist taking a few shots on the kids before he left.The troops are restless, rallying for a fight! Grandpa makes the first move at Derek - it is "the shot heard 'round the yard!"

The battle begins - kids (I'll call them the redcoats) versus adults (patriots - for sure).I'm sure glad we have Rambo on our side. Oh, wait, that's Uncle Ossil.Nathan pulls out the big gun - the really, really, really big ginormous gun! Dylan is ready for a fight! Would you want to mess with this guy? He is also a man of action, and guts - lots of guts for shooting right at my camera. I'm gonna kill him!
Done! Don't mess with a mom and her photography equipment, boy.
Alex weapon of choice was a cooler - and his favorite target - Grandma!Here's grandma, looking so patriotic.

Meanwhile, grandpa is engaged in his own battle with Nathan. It seems to be a fair fight.
Nobody messes with Luke and that powerful weapon he has. Oh no, he is pointing straight at me! It's all over.

Afterwards, we all dry off by trying Grandpa's new trikke. It is a lot harder than it looks.

In the end we could say "Mission Accomplished" because we were all as stuffed and soaked as well as exhausted, and happy as possible. Until next year when the battle picks up again, and I will, hopefully, find a gun even bigger than Nathan's.

Deck the Halls with Flags and Buntings

I must admit the I LOVE this country, I LOVE Independence Day, and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE pulling out all my Americana decorations. I sing patriotic songs as I hang buntings over my door and windows, and the gigantic 48 star flag over my fireplace (actually, It completely covers the fireplace!) I love how my little parade flags look, all lined up in my milk glass bud vases. I am crazy about my old 76 flag and my recent find, the fifty flag centerpiece ($2). I got everything at garage sales. I can never pass up an old flag at a yard sale! The best part about decorating for the fourth, it that it takes me about 30minutes, compared to 3 solid days to decorate for Christmas - and to me it is just as magical. Bold stripes and bright stars. Betsy Ross is my kind of gal!