Dear July

For us, July means a month of celebrations and celebrating. We celebrate the Fourth on two days, first with friends on the 3rd and then again with more pomp and more fireworks on the 4th. Patrick and I celebrate our anniversary on the 20th; eleven years this year! And we celebrate Henry on the 22nd and there are many celebrations for that dear occasion. It's a fun and festive month. We also spent time crossing lots more stuff off of our Summer List.

We hosted our second annual 3rd of July party this year and it is quickly becoming one of my favorite traditions with friends. I love having a yard and house brimming with voices and laughter and the chaos of twenty-two children playing outside and running in. I love a giant meal potluck style on the patio and tripping over children riding tricycles between our legs while we serve it up. I love making festive scrappy buntings and hanging them across doorways and over the mantle. I love the magic of the Fourth. The sparklers, the excitement and anticipation waiting for the fireworks to start, the way too late night that follows. It's all magic to me. The wonder that makes up childhood and warm summer memories.

Other favorites this month included a can of gold spray paint {I used to make over our red gumball machine and some tiny chairs I got for a song and dance at a garage sale}, the start of a new tradition --Mystery Thursdays--with Henry {we go on a date that night just the two of us and do something fun together just for the joy of being together, no gifts or buying stuff. we went mini-putting and for froyo on our first Thursday}, lots of time spent at the pool with friends, riding bikes at a bmx park in Farmer City while Howie was at the vet, new shoes {for the boys and for me too}, logging more running miles and the subsequent happy endorphins that make it worth it and the start of what will hopefully become a new neighborhood tradition. When I was a girl, every summer at my Dad's we would have a gigantic-all-neighborhood-welcome water balloon fight. It was giant and I remember feeling completely in awe every time I saw the wheelbarrows filled to the brim with the water balloons my Dad and Sandi had {painstakingly} filled up. When I talk about summers past with my boys, the "water balloon fight" always gets mentioned and this year it topped their Summer List. Fittingly, my Dad and Sandi came to visit and brought the water balloons with them. When hundreds were filled and the wheelbarrow was full, the neighborhood boys came running and our first annual balloon fight commenced. It was so much fun.

July also meant celebrating Henry's birthday first with friends at the pool, and then on the 22nd and then with our dear family at the end of the month. It was so special celebrating him and being surrounded with people who love him so dearly. We are so grateful for his life and for his spirit, so determined and tenacious.

Bidding farewell to July is bittersweet. It seems like a downhill race now to back to school and the start of new schedules and earlier bedtimes and the packing lunch routine. I'm so grateful for the full summer we've had and the chances we've had to spend time with friends and our family and each other.