Happy Fourth of July!

Well, despite approximately 398 changes of plans in a couple of hours, we had a wonderful Independence Day celebration with Tia Daniella, Darryl and Valerie (evidently we are no longer allowed to call her "Duckie" anymore -- sigh, they're growing up so fast!). They showed up in pouring rain around 11 a.m., and the girls immediately went off to Rachel's room to play while the adults had coffee (and I finished breakfast), and talked. We had planned to go to the fireworks in D.C., and kept waiting for the rain to decide what the hell it was going to do -- stop? Keep going?

Finally we decided to take the girls to a park when they started getting restless. Darryl and I had a nice talk about after-school activities while Drew and Daniella went to the local Harris Teeter to get food for the fireworks (they had all persuaded me that my plan to make fried chicken, popovers and chocolate-chip cake was too elaborate. I did end up making the cake, but they bought everything else, and we were all set to go.)

Near the park where Rachel and Valerie were playing was a cute little lending library in front of a house (Portland is filled with these), so I got to introduce Rachel to the concept. Just before we headed over there, we heard a huge crack -- and a TREE had fallen over from all the rain and wind (we've had an exceptionally rainy summer so far). And then the skies opened up again, and we decided just to bag it and head home. Daniella and Drew, ever prudent, went back to Harris Teeter to return as much of the food as they could and Darryl, the girls and I went back home.

We had sort of formulated a plan: The girls would see Inside Out (the hot new kids' movie that apparently is great for grown-ups, too) and I would fry up the chicken, make the popovers, etc. It was either everyone except me would go, or Daniella would stay and keep me company -- and Daniella stayed. We had a great conversation before she headed to the couch and just crashed, while I got dinner together. Of course, that was the time that the rain decided to stop, and I wondered briefly if we were doing the right thing, but as Daniella said -- we saw the fireworks last year, we all plan to see them together next year, so missing this one time because of weather that would make us miserable standing the rain or sitting on the wet ground was sensible. And she was right. I kind of messed up the popovers, but the chicken was great and everyone loved the chocolate-chip cake. So, it was a relaxed and funky Fourth of July, one that I'm sure we'll all remember.