I glanced at the calendar a few days ago and saw something kinda funny coming up in the month of August: National Watermelon Day. Now, I didn’t think twice about National Donut Day or National Ice Cream Day as I happily made sure to mark the occasion with tasty treats. So why did I roll my eyes at the thought of National Watermelon Day? And who really decides it’s a day to think about and eat watermelon anyway?! Nonetheless, in this time of “there’s a special day for everything”, I had Emily pick out a watermelon when we went grocery shopping. It hadn’t been on the list lately, and while we usually just buy a little package already cut up, I had her pick one out a whole one. She loved knocking on as many as she could, trying to decide which watermelon would be the best. Later, with a few slices in hand, we headed off to a nearby forest preserve where an old farmhouse and barn is one of our favorite places to explore. As we sat on the steps I told her about the summers I had spent as a child eating countless slices of watermelon, and how her Papa likes to shake salt on his melon. “WHAT?!” she exclaimed, but the bigger reaction was when I told her that the watermelon I used to eat was full of seeds, not the seedless kind we are used to eating now. Big black seeds. And that her Uncle Ron and I would have contests to see who could spit them out in the yard the farthest. “WHAT?!!!! And then watermelons grew in your yard?” 🙂 There was a bit of disappointment that there was no spitting for us that morning, or the chance of watermelons now growing in our yard. But tomorrow is another day, AND it’s National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day.