Independence Day Celebrations
As usual, our Holiday celebrations were fun filled and exhausting.
Though, Carie repeatedly proclaimed (under her breath) how much she dislikes this holiday. Her dislike for the holiday has nothing to do with the intended reason to celebrate, though that is often forgotten amongst all of the traditional hoopla. The dislike revolves around the extremely late nights, all the commotion and noise - omg the noise, and resulting kid exhaustion. Our kids thrive on their routines and sleep, especially sleep, and those seemingly go out the window during the multi-day celebration of this holiday.
Tuesday evening (the 3rd) we went to Lincoln so the kids could celebrate a bit with their cousin and watch my brother set off his fireworks.
He had some day-time fireworks that the kids enjoyed (mostly) and then he brought out his stuff (I call it the boy stuff) that sent Ellie inside quite fast.
Throughout the night our kids alternated between being inside and watching them through the window and being outside to watch them.
I had suggested, requested, pleaded that he start with his tame stuff, and I guess his missile launcher was tame for him. Spencer exclaimed that it was too loud!
Near the end of his show we got all the kids jammied up and ready to go. They, and we, were quite tired and ready for bed. Thankfully they all fell asleep on the way home and they all transferred easily once home. Thankfully the next day was a day off!
Wednesday started off a bit slow. Thankfully all the kids slept in! Once we got going we headed downtown for a picnic lunch at Gene Leahy Mall. The area is an "urban playground" running through the downtown area. We setup our picnic under a nice big tree next to the water, ate lunch and fed the swans, ducks, and fish.
Then we enjoyed the "big big slides" for a bit before heading home for nap time.
While Spencer was napping I took Alex and Ellie shopping for Alex's birthday present. We scored on some great deals and Alex ended up with some nice stuff. We then headed over to the mall for a bit. We like to go to the mall, but I struggled with understanding the draw the mall has to an almost 11yo. I was happy to take her to the mall but I never figured out what she really wanted to do at the mall.
Then it was time to head home and figure out our evening plans. We wanted to go to Lincoln (again) as we were invited to Carie's sisters house to celebrate with them. But, given the next day was a work day and given how out of routine we knew our kids were and how out of routine we expected B&B to be, we also wanted to be home for bedtime with high hopes that it wouldn't be a late night for our 4. The next day wasn't looking so good for Carie! I was lucky and got to go to work while she navigated the day with 6 over-tired kids.
With Spencer not waking from his nap until 5:00ish and with our desire to be home before bedtime, it didn't seem possible to make the trip to Lincoln. So we stayed home and still managed to stay up extremely late. The kids had nothing to do with going to bed with all the excitement and noise going on outside. I was quite impressed with how well our kids tolerated the noise. It seems that each night was an improvement over the previous night. As usual, there were quite a lot of fireworks going of throughout the neighborhood. A couple of our neighbors had quite a stash and lit them off well into the night. And of course, our kids had no interest in calling it a night until they were completely done!
Overall I'm glad the nights filled with noise are behind us and we are in recovery mode. I'm also quite thankful that we and the people we know had a fun and safe holiday.
Though, Carie repeatedly proclaimed (under her breath) how much she dislikes this holiday. Her dislike for the holiday has nothing to do with the intended reason to celebrate, though that is often forgotten amongst all of the traditional hoopla. The dislike revolves around the extremely late nights, all the commotion and noise - omg the noise, and resulting kid exhaustion. Our kids thrive on their routines and sleep, especially sleep, and those seemingly go out the window during the multi-day celebration of this holiday.
Tuesday evening (the 3rd) we went to Lincoln so the kids could celebrate a bit with their cousin and watch my brother set off his fireworks.
He had some day-time fireworks that the kids enjoyed (mostly) and then he brought out his stuff (I call it the boy stuff) that sent Ellie inside quite fast. 
Throughout the night our kids alternated between being inside and watching them through the window and being outside to watch them. 
I had suggested, requested, pleaded that he start with his tame stuff, and I guess his missile launcher was tame for him. Spencer exclaimed that it was too loud! Near the end of his show we got all the kids jammied up and ready to go. They, and we, were quite tired and ready for bed. Thankfully they all fell asleep on the way home and they all transferred easily once home. Thankfully the next day was a day off!
Wednesday started off a bit slow. Thankfully all the kids slept in! Once we got going we headed downtown for a picnic lunch at Gene Leahy Mall. The area is an "urban playground" running through the downtown area. We setup our picnic under a nice big tree next to the water, ate lunch and fed the swans, ducks, and fish. 
Then we enjoyed the "big big slides" for a bit before heading home for nap time.
While Spencer was napping I took Alex and Ellie shopping for Alex's birthday present. We scored on some great deals and Alex ended up with some nice stuff. We then headed over to the mall for a bit. We like to go to the mall, but I struggled with understanding the draw the mall has to an almost 11yo. I was happy to take her to the mall but I never figured out what she really wanted to do at the mall.
Then it was time to head home and figure out our evening plans. We wanted to go to Lincoln (again) as we were invited to Carie's sisters house to celebrate with them. But, given the next day was a work day and given how out of routine we knew our kids were and how out of routine we expected B&B to be, we also wanted to be home for bedtime with high hopes that it wouldn't be a late night for our 4. The next day wasn't looking so good for Carie! I was lucky and got to go to work while she navigated the day with 6 over-tired kids.
With Spencer not waking from his nap until 5:00ish and with our desire to be home before bedtime, it didn't seem possible to make the trip to Lincoln. So we stayed home and still managed to stay up extremely late. The kids had nothing to do with going to bed with all the excitement and noise going on outside. I was quite impressed with how well our kids tolerated the noise. It seems that each night was an improvement over the previous night. As usual, there were quite a lot of fireworks going of throughout the neighborhood. A couple of our neighbors had quite a stash and lit them off well into the night. And of course, our kids had no interest in calling it a night until they were completely done!
Overall I'm glad the nights filled with noise are behind us and we are in recovery mode. I'm also quite thankful that we and the people we know had a fun and safe holiday.
posted by Sonya at 9:18 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home