Happy Birthday, Eddie!

Today is Eddie's birthday, and to celebrate, we went out to a nice dinner in downtown Seattle at the Purple Cafe & Wine Bar, then we went to hear the Seattle Symphony play the music composed by Nobuo Uematsu for the Final Fantasy video games.  The performance was wonderful, and especially fun for Riley, who knew all the music and caught all the funny things that appeared on the screen above the stage, where they were displaying scenes from all the versions of the game.  A very fun evening in the big city for us!!

Happy Independence Day!!

Our neighborhood had a kids' bike parade today to celebrate the 4th.  Everyone gathered right outside our house, then paraded through the whole neighborhood.  Riley's bike was decked out with streamers, pinwheels, and, believe it or not, napkins!  Yes, napkins decorated like flags were what we had on hand to decorate, and they worked perfectly as we used them to wrap around the frame of his bike, and we taped some to the bag on the back of his bike.  His bike was more decked out than all the others, and he told a neighbor that he felt "overdressed" for the occasion!  

We had a wonderful Independence Day, first with the parade, some fab BBQ courtesy of Eddie, then a beautiful fireworks display over Vashon Island which we watched from a private perch on a bluff over the water, under a gazebo surrounded by tall trees, with a deer resting for the night in the field nearby.  

This Independence Day I focused on the gratitude I have for our freedom as unschoolers.  I feel grateful to live in a country where we are free to make so many personal choices, and to live in a state that makes it easy to do what we believe is best for our child by keeping him out of the institutionalized system called "school", and live a life where he can be free to dream, to learn in his own time, and to Be Who He Is.  Happy Independence Day, everyone!