Who's got the love?

So, I've been pondering lately...could be a very good thing, usually, but it sometime leaves me stumped.  It's been years since I was a kid, so I am sometimes baffled by how my children act and why they do what they do.  Do you ever find yourself trying to revert back to when you were your kid's age (if you have children) and wonder how you probably would have acted in certain situations and how your parents may have disciplined you?  I find myself doing this increasingly - still trying to decide if this is a red flag for what's down the road;  Anyway, so my question is, do you kill with love or do you kill with parental authority when kids are thinking they're world as they know it is ending?  I've tried both - not always successful.  I'm either getting trampled on with the "love" part because the kids see it as an open opportunity of mom being weak, or, I pull the reigns WAY in and then the kids are crying constantly, and really who's happy with the outcome?  And if I try a combination of the two, I just end up heading one way or the other anyway.  So yeah, this is me pondering, and this is what Scott gets for having me do the next entry on the blog.  Discuss...

How Else Would You Celebrate Pioneers?

SO, a few years ago we were sitting around with extended family discussing some plans we had for celebrating the 4th of July.  As the discussion grew longer we started throwing a few different ideas out trying to find some way to spice up the usual fireworks stand display of smoke bombs, flowers and fountains. The event that came out of that discussion was Tank Wars.

Here's the idea: Family members are divided into teams. Each team is required to assemble a battallion of sorts using the kind of vehicles you would find for sale at a fireworks stand. Each battallion must contain a certain number of those cardboard tanks you buy by the case. Outside of that, pretty much any thing goes.   

We've been doing this on and off for about 5 years and even though we did manage to scare off one potential family member we think it's a riot!  ONe word of warning, make sure at least one the participants is well versed in the art of band-aids, minor burns, and road rash.  

This year we actually had three teams competing for bragging rights and complaining about illegal trips to Evanston, but in the end we give a big shout out to Aunt Kim, who won this year's contest by decision!

Of course it's all in good fun and we round it out by following up with a traditional fireworks display Black Cat style, you know, for the kiddies...

So anways, what kind of weird family stuff do you guys do over the summer holidays?