Happy Fourth of July!!!!

Yes, it was celebrated here today!! The American community, in all of its wisdom deemed it appropriate to have a Fourth of July picnic in April. They say it's better than trying to have one in July (winter here) which is a great idea, normally. However, picnics aren't great fun in rainy, 60 degree weather either. No, not fun.

Of course, we went anyway. We'd bought the tickets already!! John flipped burgers, the girls hung out with friends, Jake ran wild in the rain and I thought longingly of my warm house. I dragged the kids home with some friends after only about an hour. The rain had been coming down non-stop.

So we had friends at our house for the rest of the day - which was wonderful! Then John and Drew came back from burger-flipping and cleaning up. We chatted a while longer then John headed to the Embassy to pick up our Commissary order. It consisted of three bags of Tortilla Chips, one package of Entenman's Donuts (should have ordered more!), 12 boxes of Pancake Mix (should have ordered less!), 24 packages of hot dogs, 12 boxes of oatmeal, 12 packages of bacon and (oops!!) twenty-four bottles of green tea (ordered the wrong kind - I meant to order the Diet kind!) Oh well, this was my first try - still trying to figure out the system. I think the donuts are already half eaten. Plus, the store's been out of pancake syrup so we can't even enjoy the pancakes!!

Tonight, Nicole has friends over and Lisette went to watch a movie at a neighbour's house with the church youth group. I'm waiting for Nicole to point out that we let Lisette have two social events this weekend...yikes!

Jake and I snuggled while we watched "Spirit" - what a cool movie, I haven't watched it in a while. Now John's reading to him for bed. They're reading "Aragon" still - John's been complaining that it's a boring part so it seems to be taking forever to get through.

Soggy day but not a bad day. We did hear that one of the wonderful guys who went to Ecuador with us last year lost his wife. Please keep Jim in your prayers!! He'll certainly be in ours.