4th of July, the Purchase of Cheese and What to do When it Rains in July

For the first time since coming to Fort Hood, Matt had the fourth of July off. This naturally meant barbecue, corn on the cob,patriotic colored jello and watermelon. We invited the missionaries over for our festive dinner. We'd lured them with the promise of sparklers. Unfortunately due to the extremely strict rules in Fort Hood and Bell County; we found we weren't allowed to even do sparklers.

Fort Hood does a firework display that is visible from our front yard. The boys set up their chairs (the puppy chairs are property of Ian and Miles, Liam has the camping chair with a cup holder).

The kids always enjoy the fourth of July, but I'm pretty sure they'd enjoy sparklers more. They'll get their chance in two more years.

A few months back Ian was given a blue plastic piggy bank. All change he found around the house was his as long as he put it in his piggy bank. A little while back we found that he'd scavenged about four dollars. We asked him if he wanted to spend it; which of course he did. We went to Wal-Mart. Ian had only one thing in mind: a giant wedge of Parmesan cheese. He didn't want candy, small toys, bubbles, or soda. He had to have his "triangle cheese". It cost $3.98. By sheer coincidence this was exactly to the penny how much Ian had. When we got home; he promptly sat down and ate half the wedge of cheese.

Today, July 15th we had some crazy weather. Summer weather in Texas generally comes in two types: hot and hotter. In a fit of generous mercy it started raining yesterday, rained all night and continued raining today. It was in the seventies all day and it was heavenly. We decided to live it up and just stay home enjoying the rain. This meant a different type of entertainment. Matt and the boys took turns doing some colonial style writings with a feather pen.

I was on my laptop like a normal human being alternately working on my thesis and reading The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Liam did a little light reading but mostly played Lego Indiana Jones on his DS.

Towards the end of the day when the little monsters got restless they went out to play in our semi flooded back yard. What day is complete without getting really truly disgustingly muddy and dirty? This meant showers. This was naturally followed by our nightly ritual of Scooby Doo and some popcorn from our awesome popcorn machine. Rainy days are the best may this continue through the rest of July.