Red, White & Blue Cutie

This morning when I opened up the back sliding glass door, I really wished I could have seen more of that sunrise sky peeking out from behind the trees!

Today was “Wear USA colors” to school today, and we were more than ready with this new shirt from Nana! (Even if it was just a tad bit too big.)

And the red, white and blue ended up being quite a theme for the day… I painted my nails super festive yesterday. I used to do fun crazy stuff like this all the time, but haven’t done it much lately.

I also started a new audio book today, and the cover art matches my slightly-unplanned patriotic theme for the day. I actually don’t know why it’s so July-4th-ish-themed, but it’s cute!

OK, and look at all of these great photos we got from school today! Emerson and her twin besties had themselves a little photo shoot, and the whole class did a little patriotic parade around the school, and got popsicles for treats at afternoon snack! So much fun!

For my afternoon snack, I had slice of the strawberry pie that Grandmommie brought over last night. I remembered hearing Uncle Keith say before that he and Granddaddy always like to put peanut butter on top of it, and I wanted to try it. They smear it on top, but I was afraid to ruin it if I didn’t like it, so I put it on the side, but it was a strangely good combination! (And even this snack had red, white & blue elements!)

I made cheesy chicken & rice casserole tonight, which is literally always an absolute favorite in our house. I don’t often get to make it though. It’s super easy to put together, but takes 45 minutes to bake, and under “normal circumstances,” I get home too late to spend an hour putting together and then baking dinner. But while WFH, it’s super easy to throw together before picking Emmie up, leaving it baking in the oven while I’m gone, and then dinner is practically done by the time I get back home!

All of the kids love it, and all three of them had two servings. The boys literally ate more than Jeff and I combined, and even Emerson ate two pretty large size servings, in addition to me giving her scoops off my own plate. And this tiny little bit was all that’s left!

We were able to eat dinner early, and had plenty of family play time afterwards, before getting Emerson in the bath. That girl was sweaty and sticky and just a big ole mess!

After getting dressed and giving Daddy hugs, Emerson literally laid down in the living room floor, and bossed her brothers into carrying her like this back to her room. She was like, “Gabey come grab my little feet!”

She had her customary snack while reading her bedtime book, and then we did Mother Goose and bedtime prayers and lullabies. She also bossed me into rubbing her back in a very specific way, under shirt. She’s clearly the boss around here!

We ate dinner on paper plates, and I only dirtied up a few dishes preparing the casserole (which I washed right afterwards), so the only dirty stuff is the casserole dish & the little green bean pot, plus 5 forks. So that stuff can wait until tomorrow! Now it’s time to watch Star Wars episode IV, and we’re all super excited about these next three in the installment. And since the 4th is on a Saturday this year, we have the day off of work tomorrow, so we don’t have to get up for work in the morning!