The lone summer holiday

We had a great fourth of July holiday! We kicked off the weekend by going to Oxford Saturday to eat at Ferdinand's. Kate is getting wiggly and likes to grab any food within her reach, so it's a bit hard to eat out with her these days. Luckily we know the owners and had them entertain Kate while we ate. No trip to Oxford is complete without frozen yogurt, so we walked over to Ya Ya's for dessert.

Lindsey always experiments with new flavors and toppings. Benton always gets chocolate with chocolate chips. And he always leaves a chocolate path all over his clothes, hands, and basically anything near him.

The only picture I got of Kate all weekend. How sad is that? If she's asleep, I have the camera. If she's awake, I'm holding her. Notice she is snuggling with Benton's bobby.

While we were at Ya Ya's, Kate fell asleep in her stroller. Everyone knows you don't wake a sleeping baby, so David offered to stroll her to The Mustard Seed while I drove the other two kids. It seemed like a great plan, except that it was close to 100 degrees and Kate woke up as soon as I pulled away in the van. So David carried a fussy Kate while pushing the stroller in the ridiculous heat. But we got two cute planters to put ferns in at The Mustard Seed, so it was all worth it.

Before we headed out of town, we met the Kilgores at the park in Oxford. Anna Beth and Lindsey are the same age and Reed and Benton are a year apart, so they always enjoy playing. Sadly, we were not really able to catch up with Joey and Beth since we were literally chasing children around the playground. As we were leaving, Benton's nose started bleeding. It was totally random; he has never had a nosebleed.

Sunday morning we watched Wimbledon. David comes from a family of tennis players, and I can not play at all but love watching the sport, so this is one of the few sporting events we both look forward to each year. I even made French toast for the occassion. I could not think of a British breakfast item so I at least stuck with the right continent.

Later that afternoon the Halls came over to cook out. Somehow it always seems like Benton is surrounded by girls, but he truly enjoyed playing with dolls and dressing up with the three girls. In fact, at one point David stopped him and said, "Son, what is on your face?" And in the most matter-of-fact tone Benton replied, "Make up." Because why would he not have on make up if he was playing with three girls? Benton adores Mr. Matt but also took a liking to the littlest Hall, and at one point we noticed Benton was feeding Mimi food off his plate. Of course, it was not a romantic gesture but more of a way to get out of eating his own grapes. After the Halls left we realized Madilyn left her bloomers here while playing dress up, so I told David to text Matt to let him know. David started to text but then said, "You know, this is kind of creepy to text Matt about his daughter's panties."

So that brings us to the fourth finally. We met the Rivers at the Ruffs for swimming that morning. Reed and Lindsey kept their dads busy in the pool, and once again cool Uncle Jon was there to entertain. Benton would not get off the shallow shelf and kept his ring on at all times, but he quickly jumped out to take part in the fireworks (also known as poppers, because that is all this mom will let the kids do). We went to the Ruffs' pool four years ago when the kids were just over one, and we remarked how bittersweet it is that those precious little babies are now jumping off the deep end.






We came home and headed to our last event of the weekend, a neighborhood cookout. I knew we would not be able to stay long since Kate goes to sleep so early, but around 7:00 as she got sleepy I put her in the crib (thanks to the Halls for letting her sleep in Mimi's crib) and we were able to stay for two more hours. The kids had a blast with the neighbors and kept talking about the fireworks. Benton ran up to me, pointed to a candle, and said, "Mommy, it's a firework!" No, son, it's a candle. Benton just nodded that cute little head and said "Oh." But minutes later he ran to a flood light in the yard, pointed to it and said, "Look! It's a firework!" This time Mr. Matt explained that no, it was a light, but there would be fireworks later and he was proud of Benton for being so excited. We will cherish these innocent statements because too soon he will be jumping off the deep end as well.