The long weekend.

There is little doubt, this is my favorite time of the year. The warm weather, in combination with longer light hours make it all worth it when we are suffering through our winters. Throw in patriotism and how can it possibly get any better?

In our town we do celebrate---today we went to the farmer’s market that sets up in the parking lot every Friday. It’s at best an average farmer’s market except for the kettle corn they sell. I have no idea if America’s farmers would consider kettle corn to be part of their basic fare---but as far as I am concerned it was the winner. When you consider they had peaches from Georgia (we live in Illinois) and other fruits from states many hundreds of miles away, it would seem we don’t have any farmers around here. We have 3 tomato plants in our backyard, so I assume we are farmers too! Maybe we'll set up a stand!

Tomorrow we have the boat regatta. It’s an annual event on Lake Ellyn where all boats are made of cardboard. I am serious. The work that’s put into these boats makes me wonder, do these people have a life? We did it one year with other families and it took weeks to finish. What was the boat theme? It was a full size bus from the Harry Potter series. I am not kidding. The good news is…we got it down to the lake, the bad news is, it didn’t float very well. I had never been in Lake Ellyn until then---I got to know it well after the boat tipped over. Nothing to fear, it’s just not really clean.

On Sunday we have the parade and fireworks. I do love them both. I have a pretty good idea of what to expect because the parade rarely changes and except for a few new types of fireworks, you know the drill; I look forward to it every year.

The photo above was taken a few years ago. When you slow the camera down, and light the sparklers, amazing things happen---like circles of light. The long weekend is one I look forward to; they don’t come all that often, but when they do, I tend to catch up on things. Usually a little sleep, time with the kids, and most of all during this time of the year, celebrating what America is all about---freedom.

Thanks for stopping by.