Serious Business, What I Know For Sure & #iPPP

"They're attacking, get down," ordered Lucy while her brothers ducked behind the minivan.

"Run for cover!," yelled JT and they all ran to the bushes.  

No worries, my children weren't in any real danger.  They were just up to the serious business of being kids. Playing make believe and pretending the sounds of fireworks were an act of war.  Sounds of firecrackers rang through the darkening sky and my children were pretending they were in a battle.  They would stop to ooh and awe over fireflies and try to catch them briefly.  Then it was back to running from the enemy.

Fourth of July and we're having a blast (ugh, sorry I couldn't help it).  Not sure who was having more fun with the fireworks part of our holiday, Tim or the kids.

Earlier in the day they spent time trying to blow up a Spider Man action figure.

Poor Spidey.

Clearly they got the wrong message from the movie Toy Story.  Tim was the ringleader in this escapade and assured me it was totally normal for kids to want to do this.

I was just pleased that the kids were really working together.  Sure it was formulating a plan to try and melt Spidey's face off, but they were being nice to each other and that's what melted my heart.

I'm less firecracker and more of a sparkler person.  In fact, I love sparklers.  I fell in love with sparklers when Alice put them on a cake for one of the boys on The Brady Bunch.   How awesome is that? 

The kids indulged my sparkler love and then went back to plotting against Spidey and whatever enemy was attacking their base.

I love sparklers so much that after we thought the kids were in bed I busted out a few more.  I went into the front yard and heard "oh hey, mom!"  Hanging out the window above me were Lucy and JT.  They were listening to the faraway fireworks and pointing out the fireflies.  Neither one of them seemed surprised to see me running through the front yard with sparklers, they were just like "oh hey whassup" and then got back to their business.  Their business of being kids and telling stories and marveling at loud noises and the sounds of summer.

"This has been the best Fourth of July ever," Lucy yelled down to me before I warned her she should shut her window so bats don't fly into her room.

A little while later, I went to tuck them in (and check the room for bats) and I found Lucy and JT passed out from so much Fourth of July fun.  The serious business of being a kid is exhausting.

Sparklers, firecrackers and blowing up toys may not be everyone's idea of an epic Fourth of July, but it was one of our best, I know that for sure.

Here's what else I know for sure (this week):

• Since we decided to keep our puppy, she's been one of the happiest dogs evah.  Which makes all of us happy.  And it's pretty awesome.

  

• I am obsessed with the show Scandal.  Thank you Netflix and Hulu for letting us catch up from the beginning.  Tim and I are almost done with season one and it is sooooo good. 

• It's not too late to impress people with a Fourth of July craft. If you have a weekend party to go to, this is the perfect cheap, easy and patriotic project.  Check it out:

• Lucy and Wade are the perfect make believe partners in crime.  Mostly because he does whatever Lucy tells him to do.

• This song by Imagine Dragons is how I'm feeling about my summer...on top of the world.  Peyton's fifth grade class sang this to the parents at his graduation.  Seriously, isn't that so cool? (And they sang it on Good Morning America this morning.)

• Jennifer won the olloclip in lat week's giveaway. (The winner was determined using Random.org.)  In honor of living in the moment, loving it and capturing it on your iPhone, I'm gave away a quick-change camera lens for your iphone--the olloclip.  A lens that can make the awesome pics you already take on your iphone um, awesome-er.  It is a $70 lens and is perfect for capturing all the summer memories you are making.

What do you know for sure (this week)? C'mon, we're friends, share what you know. What did you do on the Fourth of July?  Leave a comment here or on the Facebook page.

  Please come play with me on Instagram @jumpingwithmyfingerscrossed.

I'm linking up today with my friends Greta from  Gfunkified.com and Sarah from SundaySpill.com for the #iPPP link up.  They host a link up where they encourage people to share "your funny, your yummy, your heartfelt, your favorite photos of the week" from our phones.  
Check them out.

Not Boring

Some days aren't that exciting.  They are tedious, monotonous, um, boring.  They can't all be cutesy, anecdote-filled love fests.  

I just sat down to tell my husband, Tim, about my day and he fell asleep. Yes, my day (or my description) was that f#&*ing boring.  

But when I sat down to write about how boring my day was this picture popped up.

This isn't a boring face.  This is a oh-my-god-I-love-bubbles-and-bathtime-and-life-and-this-is-so-amazing face.

And then this picture uploaded:

This isn't a boring group doing homework.  This is a homework party with chips and dip and everyone hanging and learning and laughing and loving being together.

And then this picture came along:

This isn't a boring afternoon with a toddler.  This is front row seats to a hard-drumming, music-loving, life-embracing, determined 3-year-old.

Oh hell, this post just turned into a cutesy, anecdote-filled love fest.  It's just too good not to be.  

It's midnight and as I reflect back on my not-so-boring day, I'm doing my own kitchen dance.  My kids are sleeping, my husband is sleeping and I am dancing to bluesy Alabama Shakes songs.  If you could see my face, it's so not a boring face.  It's a god-damn-I'm-so-lucky-and-happy-and-tired-and-blessed face.  

Life is good and so not boring.

Listen to this song and dance while you think about all the non-boring, simple yet amazing moments of your day. I challenge you, do it, come on, just do it.

No Money, No Gluten, No Problem

I would never call my kids spoiled.  Taken care of, lucky, loved? You bet.  Entitled, overindulged? Nope.  I wouldn't call them well-traveled either.  

This is not the post where I explain how to get unspoiled kids on purpose.  No, no.  This is the post where I explain that all this unspoiling is just circumstance.  Four children + public education hard working husband + stay at home mother/freelance writer= not a lot of extra cash flow.  I'd like to think that if we had exorbitant amounts of money and travelability (yes, one word) that my children would remain those un-entitled, under-indulged little lucky, loved beings.  But I can't guarantee it.

For now (and the foreseeable future) we aren't the family that goes to Disney World every year.  

We don't even go to Chuck E. Cheese but that's mostly because of my son JT's Celiac disease (he can't eat the pizza and even though I know that's not why you go to Chuck E. Cheese, it just felt all wrong).  

Last week the whole Chuck E. Cheese situation changed. They now offer gluten free pizza and we set out on a family adventure (minus our 11-year-old who was at a sleepover) to check it out.

Here are a few things I discovered:
1. The gluten free pizza and process of cooking/serving at the restaurant are really good.  
2. Chuck E. Cheese is the gateway to gambling.
3. It might as well have been Disney World because my kids had the time of their lives.

Going out to dinner as a family basically stopped when JT was diagnosed with Celiac disease.  Sure you hear of people getting bun less burgers and being fine.  But those people must be less severe than my son who just needs a crumb of gluten to get very, very sick.  Just one crumb.  We worry about gluten cross-contamination and remain very skeptical about restaurants that claim to be gluten free.

I am happy to report that Chuck E. Cheese has a very good system in place.  Their gluten free pizzas are baked in a bag so they don't touch the ovens.  

They are opened at the table and guests are given their very own pizza cutter.  All of this made JT, who is 6, feel very important and happy.  He was different in a good look-at-my-cool-pizza-cutter way.

The pizza tasted pretty not horrible which is good for gluten free pizza.

The pizza situation was heartwarming, but my kids turned into greedy little ticket monsters in the game area.  I swear when they were impatiently shoving their tickets into the ticket counter, they were drooling.  It was a little scary.  They didn't blink.  A perma-grin was glued on their faces as they set upon their quest for more and more and more tickets.

My mind quickly fast-forwarded 20 years and I pictured JT and Lucy drooling over the slot machines in Vegas.  Yeah, it all starts at Chuck E. Cheese.

Shockingly they weren't disappointed when their 380 tickets only bought them a silly straw and an eraser.  

"We'll just come back and get more tickets next time," Lucy said to her brother JT.

My children were so happy and excited that night. When Chuck E. Cheese walked out to greet the crowd of kids and do a dance, my kids went wild.  

Lucy does seem to be a little reluctant with the whole dancing  mouse/rat, but JT was all over it.

Fortunately, for my husband and me, my kids don't need Disney World to be happy.  

And they don't even need Chuck E. Cheese.  We won't be going back anytime soon--it wouldn't be special if we did and holy shit it was still a lot of money for one night of cheesy fun. 

So,my advice is to live like you don't have a lot of money (either because you have to or by choice) and you too can have un-spoiled, under-indulged children.  It makes special little moments even more special.  Honestly, we feel like we hit the lottery anytime all of our children can feel happy and like they belong.  Seeing JT feel like a normal kid and not left out was pretty damn priceless.

It may not be the biggest ticket-getting game, but I love(and always will love)Skee-Ball.