HBD, USA

Holy crap the news freaks me out these days.

Have you thought about how you're going to help for the next election cycle?  I have been getting some horribly messaged and desperate fundraising emails from major party candidates and organizations that are a real turn off, and I don't have the kind of cash that'll make a difference.  But! I do have hours to fill stuffing envelopes, knocking on doors, and registering voters.  So, that's what I'm going to do, especially since I live in a state that debuted super terrible voter ID laws in the last election.  What about you?  It's a good time to make a plan.

Also, don't forget to call your reps EVERY DAY and talk to their staff about healthcare and anything else on your mind.  Resist Bot will fax your reps via text (on your end), and emails are OK, too, but noting is better than a good old fashioned phone call.  And remember, nothing is more patriotic than resistance-- it's LITERALLY what our country was founded on.  Also, this story is HILARIOUS and terrifying (we watched Idiocracy in bed last night, and it wasn't even funny anymore).

The only thing that I can think of that's more patriotic than resistance is, of course, getting drunk and blowing shit up.

We started the day on a nutritionally high note with cookie bar frosting for breakfast because I tried to make cookies for a party and they turned out flat (WTAF? My cookies have been perfect forever and then a friend's kid asks me to make them and I RUIN THEM?  Flop sweat?  I don't get it) so I made them into cookie bars, but they were kind of blah, so I made this amazing old brownie frosting recipe of my mom's and stuck tiny flags in them and they were PERFECT because MERICA.

 We decided to keep those standards high with a walk in the woods to eat donuts.  And, protip: you always look like seasoned hikers when 1/3 of your party is wearing dresses, and you are carrying coffee cups and chocolate milk and a huge box of donuts.  The more you know.

 Sometimes I forget how gorgeous this place is.

 I mean, seriously.  Now that the kids probably wouldn't fling themselves overboard unless we were, like, stopped, we need to get a boat.

 Dorothy took to rock skipping like a champ.

 Everybody got happily filthy.

 SUCH A HIKER.

 This is the picturesque place where we got SWARMED WITH MOSQUITOES.  MEMORIES.

 Cooper tried to accidentally fall in, but we were right behind him.

We have some amazing friends with an amazing house who throw amazing parties, and Tuesday was no exception.

 PERFECT.

 A little muddy.

 All we did was drink beer and holler at our kids and take selfies.  BOOK US FOR YOUR NEXT EVENT.

 Our kids want a hot tub so badly, BTW.

 Who doesn't want a wet, muddy, grass covered kid on your lap?

 I SUCK at bags, but I am going to get better, mark my words.  We have a friend who plays them at work (best job EVAR) and is waaaaay better than we are.

 MOAR selfies.

 Another friend makes gourmet cupcakes for every occasion.  Like she has an edible glitter sprayer.  So jelly.

 Yard games.

 SO GORGEOUS.

 And then!  FIREWORKS!  Right in front of us.

 She loved them.

 Who wouldn't?

 Yesterday, we had a weird schedule-- Ben working on the morning, me working in the early evening, a quick adult bday party in the afternoon. (It was more of a summer fest launch party where the bday girl was surprised with a limo to ride to Milwaukee in, but I could not attend the summer fest portion of the event because weird work schedule, so I just went to see the party people off).  So, all of this is to explain that we broke with our healthy summer tradition of swimming in the late afternoon to avoid peak sun and squeezed in a pool trip at 12:30.  So, rash guards all around.

 And even with long sleeves and reapplication of sunscreen (may Dorothy never stop calling it sun scream), I am, as my grandma used to say "brown as a berry."  Also, I realized something about myself:  I LIKE getting in the water with the kids and wearing goggles to watch them jump off the board from underwater and laying on the bottom of the pool so they can use me as a surf board and launching them into the water as high as I can and having handstand contests and generally acting like an idiot.  Way more fun than sitting in the sun with a book, especially now that they can all swim and we are playing, not just not drowning.  And now that it's finally hot and humid and the pool heater is working.

My friend's party was unicorn themed, an Dorothy saw the picture of this balloon and the unicorn bracelet I brought home, and has decided that not only does she want her next bday party to be unicorn-themed, she also wants to be a unicorn rainbow fairy for Halloween.  PERFECT.