Happy Birthday America!

It's my favorite holiday of the year!

Once again, we made a birthday cake for America.  You can keep your apple pies.  In this house, we roll with chocolate cake.

Okay, it seemed a little unpatriotic to not have apple pies... so I made mini ones with the help of a friend. 

 

Real men bake.

And this year, I asked Girlie and Boyo to tell me the story of America's Independence (with a little help from BabyGirlie).

Girlie: America of the United States of America has a birthday.

Boyo: And we have cake!

Me: But why does it have a birthday?

BabyGirlie: CAKE!

Girlie: Because America of the United States of America has a birthday on July 4th.

Boyo: And we have cake! And candy!

Girlie: And fireworks!  And a parade!

BabyGirlie: CAKE!

Me: But why is America's birthday on July 4?

Girlie: Cuz that is when it's Mommy decided for it to be borned.

Me (a little desperately): HoneyBear, remember, we talked about this.  There were the founding fathers...

Boyo: But no girls.

BabyGirlie: CAKE!

Me: And they wrote the Declaration of Independence.  Do you remember what a declaration is?

Girlie: Yes.  The Founding Fathers of America of the United States of America wrote a Declaration.  And then had a parade.  Did they go to Auntie Erin's house too?

Me (groaning): No.  What did the Declaration say?

BabyGirlie: CAKE!

Boyo: Did they ride bicycles too?

Girlie: No, no, no.  The people who wrote the Declaration of America of the United States of America didn't have bicycles.  They were old.  They were like THIRTY SEVEN. 

Husband: Hey! Thirty seven is not old!

Girlie: Yes it is.  You are the oldest person in our family.

Boyo: When did they sing Happy Birthday?

Baby Girlie: I WAN CAKE! 

Me: Can we get back to the story please?

Girlie: They wrote the Declaration to say they could have a birthday! 

Me: Sort of.  They wrote to Great Britain, remember the story?  And they told King George that America was independent of Great Britain and ready to be on it's own.

Girlie: Yes.  And then America of the United States of America had a birthday party.  What did they get for presents?

Husband: Cannonballs.

Boyo: I want cannonballs!

BabyGirlie: CAKE!

Girlie: Cannonballs are not a nice present.

Me (right eye twitching): Okay, story time is over.  Who wants cake?

Happy Birthday America!

Setting off fireworks

Watching fireworks

Right before the sprinklers came on....

Date Night

How can date night be awful and wonderful at the same time?

Saturday night my husband and I headed over to the Happiest Place on Earth. It took us over an hour to get inside -- and we live 10 miles away.

We went to the Blue Bayou and were told they were not taking "Walk -ins." The hostess said it disdainfully, like we were road kill. Road kill that smelled like sewage.

So we shrugged it off and decided to head over to the Golden Vine Winery in CA Adventure. On our way there, we were able to walk on to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Woohoo! I love that ride.

Space Mountain was closed. Sigh.

At the Golden Vine, we were told, "Oh, we aren't taking walk ups right now. We will be soon though."

My husband, a model of tact and decorum, respectfully said, "Great. When do you think that will be?"

The hostess smiled at us vacantly and said, "Around 11."

It was currently 7 pm.

I wanted to eat at a sit down restaurant at Disneyland as a special treat - not grabbing food from the diaper bag or a push cart, the way we normally do. So I did what any mature 30 year old would do when she found out she wasn't going to get her way: I sulked.

I was in a total funk. My husband knew to leave well enough alone, and he steered me over to California Screamin'.

After that roller coaster, I was in a much better mood. After all, how can you be angry when you have just been hurtled through the air at speeds of 60 mph?

We decided to leave Disney and go to the Olive Garden. As we left Disneyland, we heard two loud bangs. Sighing, we pulled into a parking lot to check our tires, certain we had just had a blow out.

Nope. The loud bangs we heard were the Disneyland fireworks going off (we're dumb, okay?). So we sat in the parking lot and had a front row seat for this:

And then we went to Olive Garden.