How about a Five on Friday, Independence Day edition? Sounds incredibly fun, right? Well I hope so, because our weekend was so good that it can’t go undocumented and I ended up with way too many photos on my camera come Tuesday morning.
001 | THE PLACE
Somebody stop me, because I can’t quit gushing about my parents’ house. I’ve told you many times that our ultimate goal is to live there, but our current house is being cranky and holding on to us way too tight. In the meantime, we spend as much time as we possibly can hanging out there on the weekends. The kids go from pool, to barn, to blanket fort to bicycle while the grown ups just enjoy each other’s company. Last Saturday afternoon, the kids got a little afternoon shower surprise and were thrilled to swim in the rain while we huddled under the porch and tried to stay dry. We almost never get rain without thunder and lightning, so this was a rare treat and they soaked it up. Pun very much intended.
002 | THE PEOPLE
Independence Day is one of my favorite days of the year and it was only made better because of these adorable people. For all of their faults, they were so happy this weekend and I don’t remember scolding them for drama or attitude a single time. My normally photograph-adverse children, posed for pictures at length, with zero complaints. Who are these people even? We spent much of our weekend sitting around the pool and I couldn’t have planned anything better. There are days when the girls have had enough sun and enough water and just want to stay in bed or be lazy around the house. I had serious concerns that four pool days in a row would end badly, but they were both eager to spend the weekend with family and pretty much stayed in the water the entire time.
As I was snapping pictures of the girls on Monday morning, my sister pulled into the drive and Hudson hopped out, yelling at us to wait for him. He slid right into our impromptu photo shoot and was all smiles in his patriotic get up. We joked that if his mom wants a picture of him, he squirms and whines, but if my family is already posing for the camera, he just hops right in and smiles on cue. We might have to settle for an extra kid for the next several years or he’ll never manage to smile in a single photo!
Maybe it’s lame, but I cannot get enough of red, white and blue clothes and swim attire for the summer. The girls and I spent way too long coordinating our swimsuits for the big day and then our daddy walked out in his striped shorts and we couldn’t help but laugh. He might ignore me and tell me no about any number of things, but cutesy outfits on July 4th isn’t one of them.
003 | THE FOOD
Even though I’ve been eating predominantly paleo since January, I knew it was time for a reset. We did a round of Whole30 in January and I fully intended to do another mid-year, so the fact that mom wanted to start on Tuesday worked perfectly for me. I wish I could tell you that I was smart last week and that I did not binge eat a few things I’d be missing, but even after six months I’m not always smart about food. While I didn’t pour soft drinks down my throat all weekend and there weren’t piles of brownies laying around, I did make a delicious pasta salad and enjoy an ear of corn. We stocked up on healthy foods again on Tuesday, but for the weekend we celebrated with our favorite treats!
004 | THE TRADITION
This was our third year in a row to enjoy the celebration at Morgan Creek Winery. We are super lucky to have such a beautiful place just a few miles away from our home and I’m so sad we didn’t know to take advantage of this any sooner. The winery hosts a huge party, complete with live music, barbecue, wine tasting and free tours, and tops it all off with a fireworks show at the end of the night. You can bring your own chairs and food, so plenty of people treat it like a huge tailgate and bring elaborate setups. This year, we packed a blanket and a twenty dollar bill. Sophie bailed on us at the last minute (it was her night to stay with my parents and she isn’t a huge fan of loud noises), but Ella and Hudson had a great time and kept each other company. They play so well together and watching them chase each other, illuminated by a single glow necklace, was pretty hilarious.
005 | THE IMPERFECTION
I’m the girl that wants every holiday to be perfect. I want it all perfectly coordinated, with everyone perfectly behaved (and all members present), while managing to take an abundance of perfectly staged photographs. We did a lot of relaxing this year. We slept late and ate ice cream for dinner. We binged on Netflix when we should have been sleeping. I lost my debit card, had a mini panic attack and got caught in a rainstorm while trying to spray paint. We didn’t try too hard this year and nobody lost their cool. It was a wonderfully relaxed weekend with some of my favorite people and even though the photos are grainy and out of focus, I had the most amazing three days with my three favorite people.
I hope your weekend was as lovely as mine and that you have all sorts of fun things planned for the weekend coming up. Summer forever, right?
