July 4th, My Favorite Holiday

Some time in the last three years, July 4th and all of the festivities surrounding it has become one of my favorite holidays.

I don't know if this has to do with having children or moving to a smaller town, but I truly love this holiday in the middle of summer.

There is always delicious goodness on the grill and tasty desserts. There are local parades, and where we live we celebrate with fireworks on two different nights. What is not to love?

This was our first year to take Isaac to watch the fireworks and he did great. He was mesmerized by the lights in the sky and didn't seem to be bothered by the big booms.

Jack on the other hand had some trepidation. He feared the fireworks were going to shoot us. This was my fault because the week before I had shown him a YouTube video of a dog who picked up a Roman Candle and shot it sideways at bystanders. Jack assumed that the fireworks in the sky would somehow shoot at us like the video. After we explained that we were safe, he felt much calmer at our second fireworks outing.

Our holiday experience included spending Sunday evening (July 3rd) at Pops on the River where we heard the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra with a guest appearance by the bluegrass band, the Dismembered Tennesseans.

The event featured patriotic songs and honored veterans. Then at 9:45pm we watched as the city of Chattanooga shot fireworks over the Tennessee River.

Monday morning (July 4th), we made our way to the local Signal Mountain bike parade. I love how events like this bring our community together. After collecting candy and visiting with friends, we went home throw lunch on the grill and visit with Daniel's dad and his wife.

That night we headed out to the local high school to watch the town of Signal Mountain shoot fireworks. While we waited for it to get dark, Jack had a blast playing with preschool friends. 

He was a bit bummed when we left right after the fireworks were over. He really wanted to play in the sand with his buddies, never mind that it was after 10pm! 

We kept our kids up until 11pm two nights in a row. Sure, there was crankiness during the following days, but it was worth it. We visited with friends and family, were reminded about the good things in our country, and restocked our candy bowl until Halloween. It was a good Fourth of July.

Creative Discovery Museum Day Camp

We hadn't initially planned on signing Jack up for camp this summer, especially when we looked at the options where we live. There are some amazing day camps but they all seemed to be $300+. Then a friend mentioned that they were sending their 4-year-old to a day camp at The Creative Discovery Museum and it was only $80 for the week. That seemed a lot more reasonable for a young kid.

We have been members of The Creative Discovery Museum for the last three years and I felt good about letting Jack spend some additional time there, plus he would already know one person. So we signed up, arranged to carpool, and off Jack went to his very first day camp.

Jack had a blast during the week. The only negative was really for me, with a pick-up time of noon, day camp really threw off my schedule for the week. But being a parent is at least partially about sacrifice, so I gave up my Y classes for the week (two weeks later I am paying for it, but that is another story).

Each day of camp was based on a different animal's TV show. With corresponding snacks and crafts. I think Jack was familiar with everything except Horton Hears a Who. He had a fantastic time and we would definitely consider signing him up again next year.

Day 1: Peppa Pig

This is an example of their snacks: 

ham, cheese, crackers and raisins to make a pig face

 Jack and his buddy show off their craft: pig snouts.

Day 2: Daniel Tiger

They made slime as a craft. Jack loved the slime he got to bring home. 

It was great fun until he stuck it in his hair...

 Silly tiger face.

Day 3: Pete the Cat

 Getting to check out the corn snake.

 Two little police men.

 Dressing up like a police man was Jack's favorite thing to do at camp.

 Pete the Cat craft.

 Cutting out glasses for his Pete the Cat.

 Making music...

and playing with sand.

 

Day 4: Horton Hears a Who

 Jack says this was elephant toothpaste.

 More time being policemen.

 We can never leave the museum without stopping to make bubbles.

Day 5: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

 Craft time.

 Their snacks were a sampling of food from The Very Hungry Caterpillar book.

Jack's award for the week was "Most Likely to Arrest You."

Overall, camp was a great experience. I can't believe we have a child who is old enough to attend day camp!

Outside 365 | June 2016

June was a fairly low-key month for our family. I wrote earlier about how we are taking things slow. Savoring our time outside and our time with friends.

For us, summer is marked with weekly swimming (in pools, lakes, creeks) and popsicles with friends.

Summer means staying up past bedtime to play at our neighborhood park and perfecting tree climbing skills (Jack) and mastering the slide (Isaac).

We have gone hiking as a family and Jack and Daniel have enjoyed bike rides in the cool of the evening.

Summer is the perfect time for spending a portion of every day outside. And that is just what we have done.

 

Last month I read an article online that has really challenged me. Why Kids Build Forts speaks to the importance of children learning through creating their own spaces.

The reason this is challenging is that I have a whole pinboard devoted to ideas of amazing things we could build in our yard some day. The board is just a collection to inspire us for when that time comes. But I am having second thoughts.

Let me clear on this, we know many people with truly amazing outdoor spaces for their kids. One of our neighbors has a tree house that spans several trees and even has a twisty slide. It is awesome and always open for any eager kid to come play.

But... I am concerned that if we build an equally amazing space in our yard, Jack will only want to play in his space. What will happen to the evenings where we gather in the park with the neighbors? What will happen to wandering in the woods across the street if he can do that in his own yard? Will will strip away the creative skills he might learn by building his own fort to his own specifications?

When Daniel was younger he built a fort in his back yard. He took me to see it when we were first dating. It was three stories high. He and a friend built the entire thing and a decade later it still stood, and he was still just as proud of it.

So while a part of us would love to mastermind the perfect fort in our own back yard for our boys, we are trying to defer to them on this. Jack talks about tree houses and forts a lot, but we kind of feel like he needs to take the lead on this.

And I hope that no matter what kid structure ends up in our yard, I hope we never stop meeting with the neighbors in the park, especially on summer evenings.

A Look Back at Project Outside 365:
January 2016 ⎮ February 2016 ⎮ March 2016 ⎮ April 2016 ⎮ May 2016

Things I Read in June (#7-9)

Disclaimer: Penguin Random House sent me the following trilogy to review. All opinions about these books are my own.

I am not one to turn down free books, even if they are a genre I might not typically read. That is where I found myself when Penguin reached out to ask if I would review the final book in the Kerning Family trilogy by Michael McGarrity. I replied saying I was willing to review the book in question but that I had not read the first two books. They offered to send me all three.

So last month I found myself diving into a Western series that I probably would not have given a second glance. Here are my thoughts.

First up in the trilogy is Hard Country. This book introduces us to the first of the Kerning cowboys who are attemping to build lives for themselves in the wild west, but they are only managing to scratch out a miserly living. In this book we are introduced to the first two generations of Kerney men. This book was fascinating in its look into cowboys and the early United States spanning the years of 1875-1918, but I had a hard time getting into this book as there was very little dialogue. The abruptness of the difficult things that happened during this book was a bit shocking, and left me with more questions than answers. Overall I wish there was more character development of this old, forgotten generation.

The second book, Backlands, introduces us to Matthew, a third generation Kerney cowboy. This book has more character development and I began to get a better understanding of who this family was. I don't know if this was intentional on the part of the author, but as the books developed and crossed decades, the language of the book became freer. Almost as if the late 1800s and early 1900s were too difficult for the people to waste breath telling their stories. This second book is more about the relationships that developed within the family and how the past continued to shape their decisions in the present. This was my favorite book of the series and made me anxious to read more.

And the final installment of the trilogy, The Last Ranch, introduces Kevin, the fourth generation Kerney. In this book we see relationships being mended between generations. Kevin Kerney brings us into a more recent time period and the relationships and language describing the relationships gets even looser. I closed out this trilogy right before July 4th and it made an impression on me as I thought about how much our country has changed over the last 240 years. Within the span of a few generations our lives are so different from our forefathers. It was also fascinating reading about these men who fought in so many different wars – Cuba, WWI, WWII and finally Vietnam. Those glimpses of war and love for country is not something I think about in my day-to-day life.

The author has a series of books about Kevin Kerney (written in the 90s). This trilogy felt like a prequel to that series and I have to be honest and say that I wasn't a fan that the final book wasn't neatly wrapped up. I probably won't continue with the series, but if you are a fan of westerns and want a long-standing series (longer than a trilogy) to read, I think you would enjoy these books. I enjoyed the historical parts and I think the author was well researched.

I gave all three books 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. I enjoyed them and they are definitely books I would recommend to my dad and anyone else I know who loves westerns or historical fiction.

Here is a sampling of what I've been reading online lately:
10 Rules of Easy Entertaining via A Cup of Jo
How to Not Take Things Personally via Design for Mankind
The Internet is Making Us Dumb via Salon
The End of Reflection via The New York Times
In Praise of "Scruff Hospitality" via Mother Nature Network
The Problem for Obama via The Telegraph
From 80s Latchkey Kid to Helicopter Parent via CNN.com
Why Constant Learners All Embrace the 5-Hour Rule via inc.com
Thoughts on Being American via Fresh Off The Grid
Notes from the Child-Full Life via Outside Online