Happy birthday, USA!

While we were at the beach yesterday they had a flag ceremony around 6pm which included singing a couple of patriotic songs, saying the pledge of allegiance, and the kids marching around in a parade waving flags and wearing patriotic hats or tiaras. Most girls picked the tiara, but Nadia picked the hat. Aunt Janet had invited her son-in-law's brother's family to join us. Mike and Emma (age 4) were there most of the day, and then his wife showed up in the evening. She didn't get the day off of work because she is a ranger at a National Park, and they were having patriotic festivities yesterday. Oliver and Emma had a great time playing together yesterday. We had burgers and corn on the cob for dinner. The club was giving out free ice cream yesterday. Three of us chose to have chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches. Oliver picked an ice cream cone. Then the kids also got ice cream cake later in the evening. They had their first experiences with silly string and watching Aunt Janet send several sky lanterns up into the sky. We stayed later than usual, and all three kids fell

asleep in the van on the way back to Aunt Janet's house. They usually use her jacuzzi tub to clean up after we get home from the beach (get rid of the sand and such) but yesterday the kids just wanted to change their clothes, brush their teeth, and climb in bed. Ian was the first one up this morning. Oliver woke up at 5:30, but thankfully he went back to sleep and slept almost 3 more hours. Ian and Nadia were playing in her room while Oliver was sleeping upstairs.

It didn't thunder yesterday, but the temperature did drop part way through the day which was greatly appreciated! It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so I think today will be our last day at the beach. We are driving back on Saturday. Nadia's friend from last year hasn't been here thus far this week. Her grandma told me she'll be arriving later this week, but Nadia made friends with someone else's granddaughter yesterday. There were definitely more kids at the beach yesterday than there had been on Monday or Tuesday.

I've made some progress on my syllabi for next semester this week. I would like to finish the math and student teaching syllabi within the next few days so that next week I can start focusing on the assessment class, which will take a lot more of my time because I haven't taught that course since 2012 and from 2010-2012 I taught it as an online course, which means the last time I taught it face-to-face was 2009. Yesterday morning I prepared my Sunday School lesson for this coming Sunday.

On Tuesday night Oliver's body kept ending up in a diagonal line in which he was taking up most of the bed and kept bumping into me. Last night I put two pillows as a barrier in between "his" side and "my" side of the bed, and that worked much better. My back usually is not keen on other mattresses when we sleep in a hotel or at someone else's house, but I have to say I really like the mattress on Aunt Janet's guest bed.
In light of staying up late last night (went to bed a little after 10:00). I want to hit the hay early tonight.