I enjoy every holiday, but 4th of JULY is one of my FAVORITES!!
There are so many things I like about this holiday. I love the picnics, parades, fact that there is usually water involved, and fireworks. But I especially love this holiday for what it represents even more. I truly believe we live in the best country in the world. And it was the courage of those men and women so many years ago that made it possible. I use this holiday to also celebrate and remember the men & women have served our country, many have even given their lives. When we the people hold strong to the Lord's laws He will bless this country, of that I have no doubt.
GOD BLESS THE USA
This is also a holiday of tradition for my family. Here is our annual schedule of events.
- Bradley Street Parade
- Children's Parade
- Time for remembering our Veterans complete with the playing of "Taps"
- lunch in the street
- Lake house for a day of fun in the sun
- Fireworks at dark, also at the lake house
I look forward to this EVERY year. I LOVE to see the children dressed up in red, white, and blue riding their bikes, strollers, and scooter! I get CHILLS every time I hear "Taps"! And I LOVE the food.
This all sounds fun, right? Well, this year we missed it, being that we were four hours away.... I was really bummed. If I remember right this was only the second time in the past eleven years that we didn't attend. The only other time was when we brought Brant home for the hospital on July 3rd. (I thought about it then) I just knew we wouldn't have much fun, but we did!
We woke up that morning and decided to go to the 4th of July parade in Bellaire, Texas. We got to the parade site very easily and found wonderful parking. Then Allie threw up her entire breakfast in her car seat and all over herself!! (I prayed for patience...) Jason was able to clean it up because there was a water hose right by and I packed an extra outfit for Allie. (I can only credit the Lord for me packing her an extra outfit). So we were able to watch the parade in time and it was so good. Brant got an entire bag of candy!!
We then decided to go to the community pool for a swim. We braced ourselves for the crowd and tried to remember we could have a good time no matter how many people were packed into the pool like sardines. Well, we got there and there was NO crowd!! They even had an extra inflatable water slide set up for the kids to enjoy and boy did they! We bough barbecue plates and took them home for dinner.
Then it started to rain. I was disappointed to find out that the community fireworks were canceled. The kids weren't so we just went to the firework stand and bought some small stuff for the kids, sparklers, smoke bombs, and Mexican flowers. Well we invited our neighbors over and the kids had a great time! Then our neighbor brought out a HUGE box of fireworks. I had my own personal show.
IT ENDED UP BEING A GREAT DAY!!
The girls had matching outfits before the throw-up accident. See Allie face :(
Big kids at the parade.
Lilly Girl
We also made (aka dump out of the box and place on cookie sheet) Flag cookies
Allie had enough outfits to last the week and it was ok by this mommy ;)
Sweet Brant