We had a heavy rain over the past two days, and it caused tons of snails to come out onto the sidewalks. Willow and Mia love nature and life, so they were worried about the snails getting stepped on. As a result, they organized Operation Save The Snails.

They went around and grabbed all the snails they could, tossing them into the grass and ground cover so that no one would step on them.

Here is Mia’s artist representation of her “poem day.” On the left is her telling her family a poem, represented by the notes. Mom, Dad, Zoe, and Willow are in the back listening to the poem.

But, alas, her family is talking and not listening! This made Mia angry and thus we have the drawing on the right–an angry Mia mad at her family for not listening.

This drawing was submitted to the family as evidence of their rude behavior a few minutes after the actual events unfolded.

Willow and Mia enjoy a final swim before school starts.

We traditionally spend the Fourth of July taking part in two events–the Lakewood Fourth of July Parade and then the fireworks at the Lakewood Country Club. This year our apartment complex offered fireworks viewing from the top floor of the complex parking garage, complete with burgers and snacks, so we decided to do that rather than drive to the country club.

The parade was quite fun. We sat in a different spot this year, a little further down Lakewood Blvd, and while the spot was nicer in that the grass was full and didn’t contain fire ants, the shade from the nearby tree didn’t last very long and soon enough we were all in 90 degree sunlight. It wasn’t unbearable but we will definitely look for a shadier spot next year. The parade itself was quite a bit longer than last year, which was great, although I found the theme a bit lame (American Idol).

Willow and Mia examine their loot

The Lakewood parade is really an old-fashioned neighborhood parade. The floats are usually little more than a bunch of people in make-up on the back of a pick-up truck. Every so often there is a more elaborate design, but for the most part it’s just a bunch of people walking down the street, having fun, and tossing candy at the kids. Ah, candy! Our kids make out like bandits every year. It’s almost better than Halloween with none of that walking up and down the street and ringing doorbell work. Here you just sit down and the people walk by throwing candy at you.

So we walked back to our car with a big bag full of candy and happy kids.

As I mentioned we went to the parking garage roof for fireworks. We had done this two years ago and the experience was very disappointing. You can barely see fireworks over the tops of trees from a great distance away. I agreed to do it again this year for two reasons: Lea was home sick and the kids seemed to enjoy the opportunity to hang out with their neighbors at a party/picnic.

We showed up and the kids had a great time. Mia brought her barnyard animal toys, and Willow saw her friend Andrea. Unfortunately, Andrea had to head home and Mia became scared of the height, as we were pretty high up from the ground with no ceiling and walls, just a wire fence separating us from a five story fall. So in the midst of fireworks, Mia wanted to go home because she was scared and Willow wanted to go home because the fireworks were lame.

Oh well, next year it will be back to the country club. In the mean time, we had a lot of fun, even with the disappointment.

My daughters were performing in a dance recital over the weekend, and the night before they had a dress rehearsal. After the rehearsal, I took the ballet shoes of my two oldest, Zoe and Willow, in my hand so that they could get dressed to head home. It was a frantic move to the car with three girls in ballet outfits, so I remember dropping the ballet shoes in a dance bag for safekeeping.

Fast forward to the next night. We are in a rush to head to the recital and as we are gathering the last few items, Lea asks me, “Where are the ballet shoes?” I answered, “I don’t know. I remember putting them in a ballet bag.” We looked in the ballet bag, Lea’s purse, Zoe’s purse, and just about every other spot in our apartment. We couldn’t find them anywhere. I was extremely sad and said, “I must have put them in someone else’s bag!”

At our wits end and with nerves frayed, we headed to the recital with no shoes for Zoe and Willow. As soon as I sat down, I closed my eyes and put my hand on my head, concentrating intently. I pored over every moment of the previous night, rewinding the scene over and over again. I pictured myself carrying Lea’s coffee in one hand and the shoes in the other. I remembered conversations. I went over the trip home. I literally spent 20 minutes doing nothing but plumbing the depths of my memory.

In the end I pulled out two key elements. I remembered taking the four shoes and pressing them together in a pile in my left hand, and I remembered sliding them into a bag. Mia’s portion of the recital started, and I put my memory exercise to the side.

And then… and then… out of the blue I pictured it with crystal clarity. I slid the shoes into the bag that contained the Capezio tights we had bought earlier in the day. It WAS a dance bag, but it wasn’t the dance bag. I turned to Lea and excitedly said, “I remember where I put the shoes! I put them in with the Capezio boxes.”

I was excited until Lea replied, “I threw that bag out. That was garbage! Those were just the boxes the tights came in.” To make matters worse, I had taken the garbage outside to be picked up!

I hurried back to the apartment, found the shoes, and returned in time for the recital.

As I told Lea later, I was absolutely right. I had remembered correctly–I had placed the shoes in a dance bag. It just wasn’t the right dance bag!