Firsts

We had a very busy 4th of July weekend. Thursday we went to see car races at a local race park. We took Caleb, but left Jocelyn with a babysitter. This was the first time I have left Jocey with someone else for over three hours and I had a hard time trying to enjoy myself at the races because I felt a little guilty. She is doing much better when I leave her with other people. She has been making it through church services without being miserable and without having to be put in the swing facing the wall. The workers have not had to come get me out of church for several weeks now, so I think she is growing out of that stage a little bit. But Thursday she did cry allot after I left her with my friend and I felt pretty guilty. We both made it through though and I'm glad that Dan, Caleb, and I got to go.
Here is a picture of Caleb "enjoying" the race.



After the races were over, The park put on a fireworks display. This was Caleb's first fireworks display that he had ever seen. I told him before we went that we were going to see fireworks and he was very excited.However, when the fireworks began, he was really quiet. I looked over at him and saw that he was sitting next to Dan just cowering. Dan had his arm around Caleb and noticed how stiff he was. Then I realized I had told him that we were going to see fireworks, but I hadn't informed him about what fireworks are and he was terrified! After I got him to open his eyes and look at the sky, he was very impressed and began screaming at the top of his lungs naming all of the colors(I'm sure all of the people around us really appreciated the impromptu colors lesson.)

Red! Orange!

Purple!


On Friday morning I had a yard sale to try to get rid of some things that I had around the house. It went pretty well. Dan helped me set up and helped with the kids allot of the day. That was great. Allot of people drove past because it didn't look like I had a lot for sale, but I was still pleased with what I made.

July fourth evening was very relaxing.We just stayed home and enjoyed each other's company. We grilled hamburgers and Dan and Caleb played baseball. For dessert we made s'mores. These were another first for Caleb and he loved them. He wanted to try his hand at roasting a marshmallow. Here are the results of his first attempt:

(it's the black one among the coals.)

and his second attempt:

(It's the one on fire!)

He finally figured it out

and we all enjoyed our s'mores - even Jocelyn. I had given her a nice, clean, safe Graham cracker, but of course it took her no time at all to find Caleb's abandoned s'more and claim it as her own.

Here are some pictures we took while enjoying the holiday.

After dinner I took the kids inside and gave them baths , then we did sparklers when it was dark.

I hope you all had a nice Independence Day. Feel free to leave me comments even if you don't normally do so. I love to hear from all of my family and friends.