What did YOU do for the 4th of July?

What did you do for the 4th of July? I had a full day, beginning with the day before. About 11 am Mr. Scottie Dog told me that Sydney and I were going to ride on a float with him in the Ferndale 4th of July Parade. That's kind of exciting. Mr. Dog would be playing with the Humboldt Accordionairs on a 3 float entry of the Humboldt County Tea Party group. At 3 o'clock Liz asked me to make Sydney a dress for the occasion. Whew! At 5:30 Mr. Scottie Dog picked me up for dinner and I passed the dress onto Liz for hemming. We made a great team.....a 3 hour dress. What do you think of this cutie?

The Ferndale Parade was typical small town. Pony carts decorated with red, white and blue streamers, fire engines, horses, clowns and more. The weather was low overcast as usual here on the North Coast of CA until just before the parade began....then the clouds parted and the sun shown brightly. I even got some pink on my face.

We saw this guy waiting to join the parade. He was in his front yard while the floats were lining up. I think he just decided to go. Sydney loved his little dog in the front basket.

Here we are on our float...there were 10 or so accordions belting out "God Bless America," "It's a Grand Old Flag" and "This Land is Your Land." By the end Syd knew most of the words. I must admit I don't like the "rolls" that show on me....I should have sat up straighter (or lost 50 lbs!) but can you tell Mr. Scottie Dog, Sydney and I are having a good time? We are sitting on covered hay bales and leave it to MacGyver, oops, Mr. Dog, Sydney had a seat belt and everything...after all, safety first!


Just about the end of the parade, Sydney leans over to me and says, "Grandma, I LOVE riding in parades." She waved her flag and waved for about an hour straight.

When the parade had ended and our float driven back to the Fair Grounds Grandma brought out the picnic lunch. Liz and Steve found us, Grandpa bar-b-qued the chicken and we ate while Sydney ran round and round on the grass. Back home for naps. The fog rolled back in.

At 9 pm we went to Liz's and set off a box of fireworks Mr. Dog had bought. We also found some 15 year old sparklers...the kind they don't sell in CA any more and set them off with a propane torch. Sydney was frightened. She finally went inside and watched (blubbering the whole time) the show. 9:45 and we drove down to the waterfront to see the big Eureka City show. As per most years we saw some pretty red fog, green fog and occasionally the bottoms of some of the fireworks. There were so many illegal "big" fireworks going off though, below the clouds of fog so we got to see some pretty neat stuff too. Here Sydney declared she LOVED fireworks. I guess when you are 4 it's OK to be fickle.

That was our 4th of July...what did YOU do?

"Clamping" with the Queen

For the 4th of July weekend we went "clamping" (that's Sydney-speak for camping) with a bunch of family and friends to Grizzly Creek State Park. The site is so beautiful with ancient redwoods, ferns and, of course, the small Grizzly Creek. We ate all the typical camping foods: Watermelon, S'mores (Liz introduced us to "S'mores Grande"), berry cobbler, bar-b-qued chicken, Kabobs and so much more! I think Camping is just a great excuse to eat fabulous food with no guilt.

We didn't have fireworks in the Redwoods but there was a parade of cute children, friends and a grandpa (Mr. Scottie Dog of course!) all waving flags and singing "You're a Grand Ole Flag." I was part of the applauding audience. I spent much of my time reading and just relaxing. I read Rosamunde Pilcher's "Winter Solstice." I like her books having read "The Shell Seekers" years ago. I also earned the title of "Sleepy Head" as having slept through breakfast two days in a row. I made sure that this morning I was up for Liz's French Toast. We stayed up late playing cards after the kids went to bed. Liz is here modeling her new Amy Butler Hat.

On Saturday, July 5 several of us had a date at Crystal's house just a few miles away. I belong to a loosely united group called "The Finishers Club." Each month we gather to eat, chat, laugh and crown one of our members QUEEN. You know, the Queen of Quilting, Stitching Diva, Patchwork Princess, the Duchess of Applique, the Sovereign of Sewing.... QUEEN of Finishers. The idea was to help us FINISH our UFO's. I've never been in the running before, but because of the sample sewing I did for Runs With Scissors in June I was the sleeper candidate....I finished 10 (TEN!) projects. So....when you see me this month you may bow and say, "Hail, Queen BrendaLou....Hail you, oh thou of Finishers most excellent." Please do, as I'll probably never win again! Crystal & daughter Samantha were excellent hostesses (I confess, the campers were so rude as to bring all the kids & hubbies too!) and we had a wonderful time.

The rest of our camping trip was wonderful.....we all have trailers or tent trailers so we weren't really roughing it. Sydney had fun in the water, fun in the dirt, fun riding her bicycle, fun, fun, fun. Grandma did too!

Tomorrow (Monday) it's back to school and work. I've passed my first test with flying colors. I got 100% on my spelling test. Big surprise to those who know me well.