Fireworks, Fish, and Fish

What a weekend. I won't lie, by the time Monday came along... and everyone went to daycare. Yes, everyone, I was a bit glad. In an attempt to start transitioning Ainsley, she is going to daycare on a 1 time per week basis. It's helping me accomplish more in work as I'm getting busy and loving it and am also mentally prepping for the mom guilt of not being with her each day.

Back to the beginning, we started the weekend off with the annual tradition of 3rd of July fireworks at the farm. The seemed to go over better this year... we had the two oldest outside to enjoy things and Ainsley slept inside. Sure, they liked the smoke bombs and whatnot but their favorites this year were finding the little army soldier parachute guys. They would hunt them down and then carry them around in their pockets! Our show got a little long for them as it crept past 10 and they were tired and got a little antsy. E and G spent the night at the farm and we took A back home.

On the 4th, Matt and I slept in until 9:30 (Ainsley woke up at 5 but went back to sleep). We hadn't slept in that long in forever - we even went out for "breakfast/lunch" before meeting up with everybody again. As a treat that night, we went to Krolls, which always seems to be a hit with our family. No waiting really for a table or food or if there is a wait, it's not bad. E always has the soup and loves it. G will eat his stuff fairly well too. A slept on the booth behind us. We ended with a shake split between all of us. We didn't even try to do the capitol fireworks this year... maybe next year, or the year after.

On Friday, we got to see KEVIN! He and Jan had come up to bring
some furniture and take some back with them. This was the first time they'd met Ainsley. We had a fish fry at our house with some of the fish that Michele and Randy have caught and some that they caught with Kevin on the 4th. We ended the night with smores by the campfire - something we'd been talking about doing all summer but finally had the chance.

Saturday was a bit of a catch up day, the kids have been off their schedule now for 2 days...so we stayed close to home. When Grady went down for his nap, Matt and E took the paddle boat out. They caught her first fish on her pole.

EER comes in: Mom, I caught a fish!
ALR amps up the excitement: OHHH!! You did! Where is it?
EER walks off
MJR: Well, that's the thing. She was scared to death of it so we threw it back.
ALR: Did you get a picture?
MJR: Yes and you'll see just how it captured the moment.