Eclipse Vacation - Monday

When Fiona woke we put her in the bath, washed the rest of the yogurt smell off her, then she occupied herself for quite some time.
The Russells being early risers, by the time I showered and made my way down to the kitchen, a tantalizing feast of oatmeal with raisins was laid out for our breakfast along with coffee for those who drink it.
I took apart the carseat and washed the cover along with some other soiled items. The Russells make their own detergent with baking soda, Fels-Naptha, Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda, and Borax. Even the panda came out fresh! We set up their drying rack in the sun and laid all the laundry out to dry. Soon other friends of the Russells began arriving, the children all ran around playing in and out of the house and the party was suddenly in full swing. 
Everyone gathered around the table for brunch - most of the kids at the kitchen table and everyone else in the dining room. The Russells had more friends over: a couple from church, a lovely woman with a precious little baby boy, and two other pretty southern belles, all in great spirits and enjoying the day. The table was piled high with french toast, fruit and bacon, thanks to our amazing and coordinated chef, Julie, with a little help from her friends. After her husband Thomas led a prayer of thanks, everyone dug in and enjoyed the feast and the company.
The kids played outside for a bit (there was a swings/playground and a sprinkler) but as it got warmer shifted mostly to playing inside.
The southerners stayed inside away from the heat, only slipping out briefly to check the eclipse's progress. Mike and I stayed outside for longer stretches, listening to a themed playlist and fiddling with filtered glasses on the porch as a dark sliver of sky encroached on the white ball of fire. A few light clouds came and went, outlined in glory, adding to the beauty of the sky. The sliver over time grew into a curve of its own as the sun passed behind the moon, turning the sun into a smaller and smaller crescent. The air started getting cooler and the glare of our surroundings died down. 
By the time the sun was down to a fingernail everyone had moved out to the front yard, chatting animatedly. A joke was made that a yard without fire ants would triple the house value as indeed these and other bugs were everywhere. We took off our shoes anyway. Although we all had filtered glasses, we made a pinhole in a piece of paper and focused the crescent of the sun on another piece of paper. Indeed, the eclipse made crescents everywhere the sun could slip through a tiny opening inside and out (leaves, blinds, etc).
As the eclipse was close to totality, we looked down as instructed and were delighted to see ripples of light and shadow chasing across the ground, called "shadow snakes" that we could see best on the sidewalk, pieces of paper, and a light colored sheet. As the shadow snakes disappeared, the music of the bugs intensified and everything faded around us as the last diamond glint of the sun shone and slipped behind the sky colored shape of the moon. We all cheered and squealed in ecstasy. The neighbor's dogs all went and laid down quietly. With the sun hidden, we felt a refreshingly cool breeze after the blazing summer heat of the midday we had been experiencing. Suddenly swathed in darkness, we took off the glasses and gazed at the sky, awestruck at the sight of the swirling corona surrounding a circle of sky that was the moon.
Too soon, the shadow became a glint and quickly the sun's warmth returned as the opposite crescent appeared, the shadow snakes reappeared for a short while, birds began to chatter as if it were morning, the dogs got back up and started moving around, and the trance was broken.
The rest of the day we rested for a bit from being in the sun, had pizza for dinner, and at dusk our family went for a walk down to a graveyard by a nearby church. In the neighborhood the houses were mostly ranches, with a few palms and other shrubs, and many very tall pine trees, under which no vegetation grows and the ground is covered in needles and pieces of pine cones. Once poke-stops were twirled and children were ready to go back, we turned and headed back home as the darkness of actual evening slowly covered us.