We explained the 4th to the kids this year. Very generically and kid friendly of course. I loved that Ayla brought it up through out the day. "Mom, we're free to love God and vote"(followed by whats 'vote' mean?) or "Mom, very brave soldiers fought for us to be our own country" Of course she has no understanding of how big that really is, but she knows. And that makes me smile. Dailon thought it was fun to run around screaming "We're freeeeeeeeeee!" and each time he spotted a flag he exclaimed "There it is! That's AMERICAAAA!"
I'm pretty sure Chary just loved that there was food. Over the 2 days that we celebrated the holiday, she had to have eaten 3000 calories. My goodness, she can eat! When she didn't have food of her own she was scoping out what everyone else had and would casually walk up, batting her eyelashes and smiling. "Bite please" When that didn't work she pointed and tried her standby "Uh, Uh, uh, uh" Either way, she got plenty.
Dailon loves babies, he really loves Tenley and Kamden.
Even at 3 1/2, he's looking at her like 'Seriously? You can't just smile like a normal, non-princess kind of kid?'
My mom and dad's neighborhood had a great party on Monday. They had a parade, face painting, dunk tank, dinner, music, and fireworks. We had a really nice time with them. It's funny but at 34, I still like being with my parents, at their house - there is some sense of
everything being just as it should be. My heart melts watching them with our kids. My dad still calls me "pumpkin" once in awhile. It's nice to be close by and be able to spend time with them.
Checking out her face paint and glittery hair
All three of them tried out sparklers. Ayla wanted to do them all night. Dailon was a bit leary but eventually warmed up and did okay. Chary who is fearless in every way, almost lit me on fire at least 5 different times inthe 2 minutes i took to burn her 36" sparkler. I was more than happy to let Darren take over "Chary duty" so that I could snap a few pictures
