WagMommy: july 4th, beach day & i'll never take the kids to a restaurant again

I love the 4th of July. Cheeseburgers are one of my top 3 favorite foods and fireworks are one of my top 3 things to see. Dan worked this year. He works most years on the 4th. Although Addie wasn't excited about the idea of loud booming fireworks, she was willing to give it a try. She said it was pretty terrifying and plugged her ears the whole time but admitted that they were really pretty.

Since Dan is the one who usually makes hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill with extra love and sauteed onions and mushrooms, my attempt at both did not impress the kids. I made them on the stovetop. Mya only ate half of her burger and said, "I think Dad has spoiled us." I agreed.

Waiting for the fireworks to start...

We house-sat for a couple days at a friend's house near the beach and loved every minute of it.

Of the four kids, Addie loves the beach the most. She needs nothing to have a good time there. She talks and laughs with the ocean, jumps over waves and dances like no one is watching. It's one of my favorite things to watch.

Angus equally enjoyed the trampoline.

Can you find the cat?

This actually looks really comfortable. He slept like this for 2 hours.

My friend Karla came to visit and I was feeling adventurous and thought it would be a great idea to go out for breakfast. Not sure why. I think I forgot that nobody wins when we go out. Not the kids, not me, not the waitress, and definitely not the people who have to clean up after us.

I called ahead so we'd only have to wait a few minutes instead of an hour which was the best idea I've had in a long time. I thought to myself, The kids are older now. This will be nice. But we haven't been out to eat in a while. Maybe they forgot how to do that. And I think my patience lately has dwindled down to pretty much zero.

There was a war over the positioning of the table, lots of complaints including "It's SO cold in here!" mean stares between siblings, threats of grounding (by me) and Angus cried because people who litter the streets of Azusa make him SO angry and also sometimes people are mean to him (not that day, just sometimes). He also said that it was way too noisy in the restaurant and plugged his ears most of the time. I let him cry on my shoulder for a while. Mya retrieved all the sweatshirts from my trunk which helped a little bit. Sweatshirts have been the #1 most used thing in my trunk out of all 50 things I keep there just in case. I also keep bottled water in there because there's nothing worse than a tired thirsty kid.

The restaurant was out of apple juice which nearly caused a riot, followed by more whining and the waitress repeating the list of drinks offered 5 times but we managed to place our drink order.

Then we ordered the food which is always pretty difficult. The kids want what they want and it never matches with what is on the menu. It's usually so complicated that I let them all talk to the waitress and see what she can do.

All 4 kids were asking where the food was 2 minutes after placing our order. Everybody was "SOOOOO hungry" even though they all ate breakfast #1 2 hours prior. BUT then I spotted a balloon guy. A smart dude who makes balloon animals for fussy children as they wait for their food. It was magic. They were silent as they watched him carefully craft their requested balloon. And after they got them, the kids were kind, happy, polite and all-around pleasant little people. If you're wondering where this was, it was at The Broken Yolk Cafe in Glendora. Not sure when the balloon guy is there but we went on a Sunday morning.

This pic below was before the balloon guy entered the picture, hence Addie's face and Angus pouting behind Mya, refusing to be in the pic. Winter took the pic it so forgive the blurriness.