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Friday, July 6, 2012

What a weekend it was!

I hope all of you enjoyed your 4th of July weekend as much as we did around here.  It was full of traditions and fun.  And of course when you do things with the Sage family, there's generally a crowd.  That makes it even more fun!
 
We started the day with the Stow Parade.  Our family has gathered in the same spot for years and years.  I thought it was probably for about 20 years, but go to thinking and it's been even longer.  And going to the parade has been a tradition for me since before we were even married I think.  We would go with my parents, big parade fans.  We'd take our lawn chairs and sit and watch many friends participating back then.  Times have changed.  Entrants have changed, but we always look forward to watching it. 
 
This year we had 19 with us.  Lots of kids and grandkids.  It's always a blast to watch the little ones.  The oldest kids walked across to Target and got a big box of sidewalk chalk.  Giant box.  All the kids took pieces and wrote on the street after the traffic was stopped.  They made a target and said "candy here please" and they drew pictures of candy.  Little Madison wrote all sorts of things.  None we could pronounce, but it was her special message using all her letters.  :-)
 
We had literally dozens of muffins for our breakfast.  Kennedy was a busy baker all evening on the 3rd.  She made blueberry, strawberry, chocolate chip and lemon poppyseed muffins.  We took blue raspberry and regular fruit punch and orange juice.  No coffee.  I don't have a good thermos.  And besides.  It was H O T !!  We had a big cooler of water with us too.  Always a must in the hot, hot temps.
 
When the parade started it was good to see that so many people really do still stand for the passing of the Red White and Blue.  I'm glad we've passed that tradition down to the younger generations.  All up and down the street people stood in reverence and respect to the flag and to the soldiers.  There seemed to be even more military units this year than usual.  Maybe not.  I don't know.
 
I missed clowns.  There were a few, but I'm such a clown lovin' gal, I miss having lots and lots of clowns.  And I miss the horses.  What happened to the Sheriff's mounted patrol?  And remember a-waaay back when we used to have all the local high school bands participating?  I miss that a lot.  But the parade was a solid two hours long in the intense heat.  So many characters in costume this year.  I'm amazed they didn't end up with several fainting!
 
After the parade was over, we made our way through the traffic and back to our house.  I had most of the food handled.  Just needed to grill the burgers and dogs.  I made the cole slaw the night before and sliced the tomatoes and lettuce and onions for the sandwiches.  I made three boxes of brownies (got them cheap enough to make the box cheaper than homemade) and Kennedy also had done plain cupcakes to use for shortcake.  I made two apples pies too.  We had bought the potato salad so I didn't need to make that. 
 
In the morning before we left for the parade, I put the beans and fixin's in to crock in one crockpot and the mac and cheese in the other.  They were done when we go home.  I cute up the watermelon when we got back and set all the food out while Kris got the grill going. 
 
Cliff opened the pool and then headed up to rest.  He'd worked the night before and had gotten no sleep.  If we were going to fireworks, he needed sleep.  The girls were first in the pool.  I wanted to go in but decided if I was going to fireworks I needed to keep the knee from getting bad.  Climbing in and out isn't always good.
 
We all ate, swam, played and chilled and the guys who are baseball people watched the Indians play.  I think all had a good time. 
 
We decided to head to Newton Falls for fireworks, our traditional place.  We went and picked up Missy and Melanie and headed down.  Our favorite parking place was available so we parked by Missy and then she and Melanie went on down to the carnival area with Kennedy and Casey.  Rusty, Cait and Emmi were already down there, Corry and his crew were on the way.  He'd stopped to meet a friend and his family who were joining us. 
 
When it was just about time for the festivities to begin, the sky started rockin'.  I was oh so glad to see Missy come walking up to the van to say they were ready to head out.  It looked really bad.  And it was.  Some of the others got hit with a hailstorm on their way home.  We left just a few minutes before and I guess we must have dodged a bullet.
 
I can say for certain that we all went to bed tired but happy last night.  It was a very fun family day.  I love when we get together. 
 
Today I spent my time cleaning and putting away things from yesterday.  Not until after I uploaded pictures from yesterday to my facebook.  I only did a couple at home at the picnic and none at the fireworks.  There are plenty of the parade though.  Have a look.  I'd put them on here but I'm using a desktop instead of my laptop and haven't put the pictures on this machine.
 
When I was done putting the pictures on (which took hours since it only lets me put five at a time) and cleaning and clearing the house and putting the patio cushions back on the furniture, I did the bills.  Then I started some mending.  Now, this mama is one tired mama who needs to hit the hay.  Think I'll start another Christmas book.  Finished one the other night.  I'm a little past half in my bathroom read (a Barbara Bush book) and about halfway in the one I'm reading via Kindle on my phone.  Yep.  I do have three books I'm reading at a time.  At least.  And no.  It's not confusing.  :-)
 
Time to say nighty night.  See you next time.
~~Mama Sage