100 Degrees...In The Shade

Our act of Independence on the Fourth of July was avoiding any over-exposure outside and staying cool.

Well, actually, we started the day off by celebrating our freedom of religion by attending Mass as a family and praying for our country. While we are an early-rising family, it's still tricky to actually get out of the house early enough to make it to 8am Mass, but we did it!

Upon leaving church we discovered that it was already sweltering hot and clearly wasn't going to let up. With no plans made for the holiday, we knew we were destined for the AC indoors or something water related outside for the day.

The other day, my children eagerly sat and waited by the thermometer to see this:

But today and yesterday, we saw this:

This houseful of Minnesotans are clearly only cold-hearty and not heat-hearty. Yowzers! Too hot for us.


A trip to the lake was in order, so I headed out with the three oldest kiddos. We slathered on the sunscreen, drank plenty of water and had fun.

I tried to stay patriotic despite the heat and created a flag in the sand, complete with 50 shells for the stars. My kids seemed to be impressed.

Can anyone guess whose mom has forgotten to buy swim diapers at the store?

See that rounded tush full of lake water? If only you could've seen it in person and how big it was! I'm positive that it added a good 3 lbs. to Gianna. Poor child #3.

Reed brought Margaret out in the heat for a bit, but she was not impressed.

Putting her little chubbers in the lake for the first time did help, a little.

We headed for home and stayed hunkered down indoors like a bunch of Minnesotans caught in blizzard weather in January. Such extremists we are here.

After supper we enjoyed an American trifle (of sorts) or otherwise known as a Red, White & Blue-layered-dessert-that-mommy-randomly-threw-together. It was our last act of independence for the day and my family used their freedom to devour the entire thing.

I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July!

God Bless America!