Various and Sundry Items

An excellent long 4th of July weekend! I started it off by going to bed at 9:30pm on Friday night (after an exhausting day of work, a doctor's appointment and entertaining the exterminator). Big H stayed up later than I did. But don't worry, it gets more exciting from there. I spent Saturday morning cleaning. That's right, cleaning all of the bathrooms! But then Big H and I left to go to my parents' house. She spent the day with them at a 4th of July cookout and watched fireworks for the first time while I went out to dinner with Na and Wendy for Na's birthday, where we had a very relaxing and enjoyable evening. I ate so much that I struggled to stay awake to watch the end of the NASCAR race, but did not make it. But those two nights of going to bed early gave me lots of energy for the rest of the weekend.

We went to Aunt J & T's marina on Sunday for a family 4th of July celebration. I spent most of the day in the pool with Big H, who is still a little fish when she's in the water. She did great with the water wings, so I might not have to worry about the other swimming inner tube that exploded and not being able to find another one since Walmart has all of the school supplies out already.

On Monday, we did a family togetherness thing, just the three of us. M., Big H and I went to the Hershey Gardens. I had never been there before and was very impressed. But then again, Hershey is like Disney - they usually know how to do things right. There is a children's garden area with a Butterfly House. Big H was much better behaved than she was at the butterfly house in Niagara Falls two summers ago when she was too rough with the butterflies. We also went to see the Big Bugs exhibit - giant bug sculptures made out of natural materials, which was very cool and Big H really seemed to enjoy it, since she loves all things bugs. The only downside was the weather. We went early to try and beat the heat, but by quarter to twelve, we had had enough and headed off to lunch at Applebees.

Tuesday was more cleaning and playing with Big H. We finally went to get her inflatable pool out of the shed, but alas, a mouse had taken up residence in it for the summer and it was unusable. She was devasted, but we promised to get her a new one this week. We finished the fun weekend with hamburgers on the grill and local fireworks.

Back to real life this week. School starts again on Thursday. Our Monday/Friday summer babysitter is on vacation, so we're using a back-up, but I think that will go smoothly. My doctor's appt. on Friday was fine. I gained two and a half pounds in June and my blood pressure is looking good. We made the appt. for our ultrasound on July 27, so hopefully we'll find out the sex then. Just in time for vacation and lots of shopping!