My little crew in red, white, and blue.  First time playing with sparklers.   Visit here or here for more Wednesday picture fun!

Living near the Chesapeake Bay affords us many opportunities for boat watching. “What’s that?” “A sailboat.” “What’s that?” “A motor boat” “What’s that?” “A kayak.” Many such conversations have gone on between the kids and I over the years. Now they happily call out the boats they see as we play at the beach or the park nearby. Last week my kids got all excited when they saw a cruise ship sailing by our park.

I’ve been to a few parades in my day. Unlike the kids, I’m not all that surprised by what I see. I’ve come to expect the fire trucks, army tanks, corvettes, marching bands… This year however, there were a few things I hadn’t seen before.  Gotta love keeping it green with the organic fertilizer. Not your typical parade entry. This was probably my favorite though.  I’m all for safety, really I am, but if that missile accidentally goes off, how much good will that fire extinguisher do?

This weekend our family, like many across the country, will gather together, and after watching a small town parade, we’ll enjoy some barbeque and corn on the cob, and conclude the evening with a gorgeous fireworks display. Meanwhile, our troops are away from their friends and families. They are not sipping lemonade on the back porch, while grilling up some burgers. Tonight they will not be holding their children on their laps as they watch the fireworks burst in the air.

I remember very little from my college biology class. The one thing that sticks in my brain is the genetics unit. I can remember sitting there running through the calculations and thinking, “If Scott and I were to get married we’d have blue eyed kids.” The hopeless romantic, head over heels in love teen that I was, I enjoyed the game of “wonder if.” The other thing from the genetics unit that sticks out is that the ability to touch your tongue to your nose is genetically dictated.

This weekend, I surprised Scott and the kids with a high seas adventure in Annapolis. After donning their costumes   And getting their tattoos We were ready to board the ship and set sail in search of our treasure The kids used their loot to purchase ice cream for dinner. A good time was had by all. Though I fear the pirate life may agree too well with them.

The one piece of parenting advice I wish I had adhered to better is to “write down those cute things your kids say b/c you will forget.” Me forget? Come on… there’s not way I could forget those cute little things my kids say… I’m super mom. Yea, I also never thought I’d bring my kids to church with mismatched shoes and no diaper bag…but 5 years and 3 kids later and super mom has left the building.

Thanks for all who wrote last week with your thoughts and suggestions on my dinner time dilemma. No worries though. Tonight my kids sat down and ate their dinner without one complaint. Not one. And let me tell you there was no dilly dallying. They sat on the curb, gobbled it up with relatively little mess and we were on our merry way, walking around downtown enjoying the boats and the harbor.

Last summer I took a Sunday School class in which I was introduced to a concept called solidarity and I realized I had very little of it. Before that class I was really very uneducated and honestly uncaring about events and situations going on in other parts of the world. If a plane crashed in Illinois, I’d be all over cnn.com reading the footage and following the case. “How tragic,” I’d think.

I am done! Whew! What a week at the circus! This was not one of those stay in your pjs all day and relax by the pool kinda weeks. Not at all. Rather it was one of those, get the kids up, fed, dressed, in shoes (no small feat for the circus crew) and to the soccer field by 9 am every.single.morning. Hello? Even during the school year, it was only M-W-F for us.