A Tale of Two Mothers....

First the story of the good mom (me.) I am planning on making this 4th of July one to remember. You see, this is Brooke's first 4th of July with our family. Last year at this time we were waiting for her bio mom's tests to come back and even though we knew Brooke was in a bad place the judge had her back with her other moms - we didn't get her officially back until July 13th. This is also Kate's first official 4th of July. Last year she had to watch the fireworks stuck in the back of the Jeep because it was storming so bad. It was hard to tell the difference between lightning and fireworks.
So this year we are going for 24 hours of non-stop fun! It all starts Friday morning at 9am with Parade registration. Our neighborhood encourages kids and families to make floats, decorate their bikes, wagons, dogs, etc and they all parade around the park. We definitely have to participate. Tonight Brooke, Jay and Kate worked on decorating the wagon!


So Jay and the girls are going to participate in the parade while i do what i do best....take pictures!

After the parade there is a cake decorating contest. My sister has been participating in this for years and has even won! I am such a novice at this but thought it sounds like fun. I am making a 3 layer vanilla cake with fresh strawberries in between each layer with vanilla frosting. I am decorating it in the shape of a sun using glitter covered ice cream cones as rays (atleast that is the plan.) Tonight I baked the layers - here they are just going in...



The good mom (still me) also made dinner - lasagna, salad and garlic bread, read 2 books, sang numerous songs and taught Kate to count to 10 (i think the sesame street we watched tonight helped with that.) I love that Super Mom feeling....too bad it never lasts!

OK, so here is the other mom story - the bad mom (unfortunately, still me.) Kate has hit a terrible picky patch when it ocmes to eating again. Last night she refused to eat dinner and begged, cried, pouted and cried some more for one of the ice cream cones Jay had bought Brooke for a treat. I tried making her one of her favorites - a bologna & cheese sandwich, cheetos and a pickle. She ended up eating the CHeetos and, of course, the ice cream cone I caved on. HOWEVER, if you squint your eyes just right, that cheeto looks a little like a carrot stick which does make me feel just a tad better!