green cake, smog, and Play-Doh pizza

So now that I'm done with being all sappy and sorry for myself I can move along now..

Sometimes I just feel sappy. But not as bad as the stuff that Natalie rubbed onto my jeans a few weeks ago.

"Hey mommy, there's something sticky and gross..and ewww" then she proceeded to rub the mysterious stuff onto my jeans. Luckily I figured out pretty quick that it was sap, but I was feeling convinced for a few seconds that it was snot.
I probably would have preferred snot.

*****

July 3rd was our 6th wedding anniversary. It was full of buttercream green cake in the shape of a watermelon (and apparently green dye takes FOREEEEVVVVER to leave your system), champagne (said in my best Christopher Walken way), and rest. I also forgot how yummy champagne is and drank it so fast as if it were "extra special" soda. I stood up and realized how much of a light-weight I am despite my heavy-weight status.
The husband overloaded me with flowers and kisses. It was honestly the best, most simple anniversary we've ever had. We usually try to find way to dump the kiddies off at someone's house but we didn't even really try this year. And it was actually really nice to share this day with the kids. Both Natalie and James kept saying sweet stuff about how it was a "special day" for us.. and Natalie would point to our wedding painting in the dining room of James, Ricky, and I and say "where am I?" with her hands on her hips and you know.."that look". She did that a few times but then let it go when I sort of lied and told her that she was in mah belly in that picture. Technically I'm not lying....that much... she was swimming around in my uterus a few weeks later. Whatever. That'll calm Hurricane Natalie for a few years.

*****

So.. 4th of July! The festivities! The barbecues! The parties! The chips and dip! The Bent Bunch shenangians!

We didn't have any of that this year. We tried to but it just didn't work out this year. As most of the planet earth knows, Colorado is so crispy and dry that most of the state has been declared a disaster zone and throw in a bajillion fires burning left and right, well that just makes things so much more interesting in these here parts. A very sad interesting. But as the fires have become a little bit under control, fires in Wyoming and Montana erupted causing this on July 4th...

Is this L.A? Bawlmore?

We still felt pretty optimistic about the area we were headed to, which was one of the super rare spots to see fireworks this year (90% of the shows were canceled this year because of the fire risk). But as we drove closer and closer to the area the haze was thicker and you couldn't see a single spot of the foothills (which are pretty huge and not too far away). Visibility was awful and the air made the back of  your throat burn a little. Hey, that's probably not a sign of something healthy.. but we went to grab dinner and continued to feel optimistic. The weather in Denver can change is 2 seconds so we were hoping that the smog would leave us all. But it didn't. Actually it got worse and the health advisory went up and so.. that's how the story goes. Gotta keep the chillens healthy. Especially a kiddo with a special heart that's already compromised.

The kids cried while we sat in the restaurant and told them that it wasn't safe to go.. then I remembered that I had a few extra bucks so we bribed them with a small trip to the toy store. That immediately perked them up and we couldn't get back to the car fast enough!
"I'm gonna get a new car and a new game.. and a new spiderman costume and... "

"Whoa whoa buddy, I was thinking of a $20 budget".

A 6 year old already knows that $20 isn't going to allow you to afford $300 worth of goodies so he actually sighed...
Sigh.

Then we headed home to make Play-Doh pizza and eat ice-cream while we watched "the guy from America's Funniest Home Videos" count down to the DC fireworks. James misses nothing.

It was a nice night.

And so peaceful. Thank you firework ban for the 1st peaceful 4th of July that I've ever experienced.