Happy Fourth of July!

I say that, though it really doesn't feel like it! Thanks to Hurricane Arthur, we have had huge storms the past few days. Yesterday's thunderstorms were the most spectacular, though today's rain has been epic in its duration and continued strength. Of course, this meant that our Fourth of July plans were all messed up! Last night's fireworks (and all related events) got moved to Sunday night. And then this morning, the parade got moved to Sunday as well. We still have the kids' bike parade tomorrow, which we will most likely participate in (just need to decorate the bikes...). But yeah-- no fireworks and parades for us today! We did, however, go to a cookout with Gus' coworker's family that lives about a block from us. Their two-year-old very excitedly refers to Gus as "Neighbor Gus," haha! The actual cooking portion looked like this:

Yes, we ate inside. haha!

Backing up, though, we had an interesting day yesterday! It was disgustingly hot and humid. I was very productive around the house in the morning, but was anxious to get out and DO something. In hindsight, it was miserable outside. We should've just stayed in! But the kids were eager to get out of the house, too. I loaded their bikes into my car and took them over to the town park, where there's a dirt track they can ride on. I figured Niko would do laps, and I could work with Maya on riding without training wheels. And there is one side of the track that gets SOME shade, so it seemed like an okay plan!

When we got there, Niko was perfectly happy to hop on his bike and zip off. He had a great time, despite the heat! Maya, however, was angry that her training wheels weren't on her bike (despite me telling her a thousand times that we weren't going to use them... sigh). At first, she flat-out refused to get on the bike. I promised her repeatedly that I WOULD NOT let go of her unless she said I could, and I stuck with it. I knew she would tell me when she was ready... and she DID! Shockingly, a few minutes into our runs, she started telling me I could let go of her! I kept thinking, "I wish I could get a video of this!" And that was when Niko came around on one of his loops and announced that he could take the video for me. Of course!!! It didn't even occur to me! But the kid is a natural with electronics... I told him which buttons to press, and we were good to go! I wish *I* wasn't in this video, since I look like a bum AND it's filmed from a very unflattering angle (6.5-year-old-sitting-on-a-bench height, haha), but look! Progress! We will have to go back and practice some more! Once we were all completely dripping with sweat (did I mention the almost-100% humidity??? It was AWFUL!), we packed it in and went home. Both kids took showers, followed by me. It felt so good after being so sticky and dusty (from the track)! And shortly after that, the clouds rolled in and the sky opened up. It was a very intense thunderstorm! Lots of thunder and lightning with torrential rain, interspersed with moments of bright sunlight breaking through the clouds. WEIRD! We all enjoyed the storm in the front room. The kids decided that it was a good time to work in their summer workbooks, which was fine with me! They are both making great progress on all the things I wanted them to work on this summer. Maya already has most of her kindergarten sight words memorized and is focusing on improving her handwriting. Niko continues to be an excellent reader, and is working on maintaining his handwriting and math skills. And, for the most part, they really like to do the work. Yay!

Oh, and I nearly forgot! After our showers but before the rain, Maya and I had picked a bunch of clover blossoms from the yard. I was reminded of when I was in middle school, when my friends and I would make things out of them-- crowns, necklaces, bracelets, whatever. I made Maya a crown, and took a picture just before the rain started. I love this kid!!

Anyway... the storms stopped, the sun came out, and the temperature had dropped about 15 degrees. It felt great! Right around 9pm, though, they picked right back up. Some of my friends in town even had hail in their yards! It was definitely a good decision to postpone the fireworks-- we had our own fireworks, provided by Mother Nature herself! :)

At any rate, this weekend promises to be busy, with all the REAL Fourth of July activities. Stay tuned for lots of pictures from those events!