Happy Independence Day!

Today is the 4th of July! Happy Birthday, America!

My gripe today is to all of you unpatriotic folk who no longer hang up flags on the 4th of July or other holidays. Honestly, I can't gripe too much because I didn't have a flag until this week. I've wanted a flag for years -- missed having a flag -- and so I splurged and bought one so that we could fully participate in this holiday. It's a small thing, but oh how I love watching it wave in the breeze. It was worth the expense, and if you don't have a flag, I urge you to consider getting one. I remember when most houses in my childhood neighborhood were flying flags on the 4th of July - it was a beautiful sight to see. Nowadays, only one or two houses have flags. It's sad.

We had a BBQ at my Mom's house tonight. It was raining (sort-of), so most of us ended up eating inside, but we BBQ'd anyway. Hotdogs, hamburgers, baked beans, corn on the cob, chips & dip, potato salad, all kinds of good food. I was in charge of dessert, so Angel Food Cake with fresh strawberries and blueberries (in King Isepik's special sauce), and strawberry "cuppy-cakes" decorated like fireworks. Mostly white frosting with blue streaks, and red and clear/white sprinkles. It was very delicious.

After dinner, I gave the kids some of those popper/snapper things that you throw on the ground to make them pop. The Pink Princess really liked them, The Purple Dragon - not so much. We also did "snakes" and the girls had a lot of fun with those.



My Mom asked me to make a game, so I brought "Pin the Star on the Flag." Everyone played, and it was pretty amusing. Grandpa (my Dad) came the closest, while Christian (my cousin's husband) was definitely the farthest. If we hadn't stopped him by sticking a board in front of his hand, he would've ended up somewhere in the garden. Dad won a flag, and we gave Christian his very own box of sparklers. WOOHOO! The Princess was sad that she didn't win. The Dragon could've cared less.



At about 9:00 we packed up the kids and went to see fireworks. I love fireworks. We let the girls entertain themselves with some sparklers before the show started. They LOVED that. The Purple Dragon was a little nervous at first, but after the first one she did it all by herself. I know she was afraid that they were going to be loud - but once she realized they weren't, she was fine.




The fireworks were not the best ever, but hey, they're fireworks! There are no bad fireworks (unless maybe they are all defective), so we still enjoyed the show. The finale was a definite let down though. I love the finales where they keep going and going and going... this one set off maybe 10 or 15 all at once, and that was it. It looked cool, but... blah.

The Purple Dragon enjoyed these fireworks much better than the ones we saw on July 3rd. She had ear plugs this time, plus we were further away so they weren't as loud and they didn't appear to be falling on top of you. The Pink Princess liked them too, but she said the ones on the 3rd were better.




Happy Independence Day, everyone!