Summertime. And The Livin’s Easy.

This morning, his dad brought him over at 10am.  We chilled for a minute.  Getting our cuddles in.  Then, we were off.  I had heard about a Book Sale at the Fort Bragg Library and we planned to hit Wiggly Giggly park afterward.  En route we happened upon a young lady with a Lemonade stand.  Must be summer.  She was doing it for Otsuchi.  When I was her age, I put all my Lemonade money toward my candy fund.  These kids these days, hu?  Maybe there is hope for them after all.

After sampling our 25 and 75 cent cups of Lemonade, we sauntered over to the Library to rifle through the stacks.  I admit I bought a hard-bound copy of Plains of Passage.  It's the third book in the series but I remember it to be the best.  Wonder what it would be like to read a book out of sequence.  I think my parents have copies of the first books if for some reason I can't.

Point being, there were no kid books at the Library to buy so after purchasing a handsome black Fort Bragg Library tote bag along with my hard-bound historical fiction novel, we crossed the street to the playground.  It was sweatshirt-on, sweatshirt-off weather, common to this area, but we ran around.  We met some new friends.  We got onto the ship where I sailed the "boat" and he used the cannons to defeat the pirates.  It was fun.

Then, to the movie store.  Let me back up.  As a parent, you learn to pace yourself.  If you know you have a short day, you pack in the activities early, to ensure the kid is nice and sleepy after dinner so they can get to bed at a decent hour.  However, I knew that today was to be full of huge adventure after dinner, so I did it.  I told him today we'd rent the Star Wars Trilogy.  Not the one with the clones or whatever, the old ones.  The ones with Luke and Han Solo, Chewy and Yoda.

That's how I convinced him to leave the park.  I am not proud of my bribery but a Mamam's gotta do what a Mamam's gotta do.  And so it is.  We got home and ate our lunches glued to the screen.  It was awesome.  I don't remember the last time I have watched those movies and I am not sure I have ever had a marathon.  In truth, we only got almost through the last movie before it was time to go.  I know, more?  Yes.  It is summertime after all.

At 7:30pm, (the little man's typical bedtime) we loaded up the car.  My niece (who lives with us), the little man and I packed up warm clothes, some snacks, some chairs and hit the Fort Bragg Harbor for a good old fashioned 4th of July (on the 2nd) BBQ.  And this wasn't just any BBQ, this one had s'mores and a pinata.

The little man doesn't like to eat marshmallows but he does a great job roasting them so I had 3 s'mores before begging him to give the remaining stack to someone else.  He had 2 on the same roasting stick when they called us over to where they were about to do the pinata.  A Pinata!  Amazing foresight to whomever planned this event.  There was a little girl ahead of the little man in line at the pinata.  She hit is a few times, but nothing deadly.  I tied on the blindfold and spun him around the same 5 times I had spun the girl, but all that stick-fighting he's been doing with his Pompa paid off.  The second whack leveled the pinata, candy guts strewn about.

He may as well have killed his first stag.  It was awesome.  He even brought home the corpse with which to decorate his room.  We then gathered up our warm clothes and headed toward the beach at Noyo Harbor to watch the fireworks.  There was a lot of smoke but this was my second year on the beach and in the fray and I want to tell you something about it: it's awesome.

Fort Bragg puts on a great show, don't get me wrong, but the fireworks shot off the beach itself and off the boats go on for an hour before the "real" works start and it is quite a spectacular show.

When we got home, the little man was still pumped about the pinata.  I gave him some warm milk.  We brushed teeth and he got into his jammies.  We sang a song, said our prayers and I kissed him goodnight.  Sometimes he takes a half hour to fall asleep.  Tonight, I think it took about 5.

All in all it was a great Saturday.  And I am reminded of that silly sentimental Counting Crows song Long December quote where he says he's gotta hold onto these moments as they pass.