It's a Deluge of Posts!

It's been so long and I've so many events to document. I've decided to take each Sunday as an opportunity to update the blog since it is my journal and I am supposed to be keeping one. So here's a couple of recaps. I was too lazy to rewrite the one I wrote without pics for July 4th so here it is.

Today was our first holiday in NYC and it's been a blast. We got to sleep in till 7:20am before having to get the kids going with breakfast and preparing for our BBQ lunch plans. We're so glad Natalie and Cameron (and Samuel, of course) as well as Pammy and all the kids could come over and enjoy the day with us. What's more American than a BBQ, anyway. Once Iz finagled a way to make the one working side of the grill to heat more evenly we got to it. We celebrated with italian sausage "dogs" with roasted red peppers and onions, Bruschetta made by our own Italian chef, Israel, Lime-chili chicken, 2 kinds of potato salad (courtesy of our guests), a green salad (that was mostly overlooked in favor of the other tastier things), grilled zuchini marinated in a simple basalmic viniegrete, and grilled mushrooms with a garlic-lime butter sauce. And homemade cookies (thanks Natalie!) and ice cream to top it all off. I only wish I had made more limeade because it was so refreshing. I also thought it amazing that Keahi was the only kid who wanted ice cream. Ada politely declined and Ezra when confronted with chocolate twix ice cream or vanilla ice cream with M&Ms in it also declined. Only plain vanilla for him. And here I thought I had chosen so well. Well, more for the adults to indulge themselves. The kids played darts and snakes and ladders, and then we cooled off in the sprinklers in our back garden. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I LOVE this house. Now the kids are resting up for the big fireworks tonight. Keahi was so excited when I told him he'd get to see the "illegals" tonight. (In the past, he's seen some arials done in our neighborhood so he's excited to see a real show.) I'll post the pics when we have internet on our computer.

Wow, even through the haze of rain, the fireworks were impressive. I was surprised Pammy was so underwhelmed by it all. Though that may have been influenced by Tenney's crying and the other assorted kid-related stresses. Even Keahi was done with it all after about 10 minutes. But Iz and I were mean and made him stay so we could see the whole 25min show. I especially liked the cubes and smiley faces.