Let Freedom Ring!

One of my favorite holidays is the Fourth of July. Not only do I love celebrating our great country and freedom, but I love making memories with our family (and it helps that the weather is usually nice too!). We started our day with a red, white and blue breakfast made by Daddy.


And then it was on to the parade. We haven't really found a great parade to watch here yet. There are a handful of them but nothing seems to compare to the parades of my growing up days in Cody, Wyoming!


The parade was packed until it down poured for about five minutes. That cleared a majority of the crowds away, and the second half was much more enjoyable!


Teyah was so much fun this weekend. She's starting to figure things out a bit and was not afraid to seek candy, give hugs to people dressed up as various characters, or play carnival games. Although she was quite frightened by the fireworks at first. But it wasn't long until her "I scary" turned into "Pretty!" "Awesome" "Yeah!!!" "Ohh, purple!" Dave told her the screaming fireworks sound like a baby, so each time we'd hear those she'd say, "It's a baby!" and then she'd make the screaming noise. Even today at church when someone was asking her about fireworks she started making the whiny noise and saying she liked the baby ones.


Aren't they precious?


Many of our neighbors celebrate Fourth of July together. It's great fun, and the kids have a blast. Out of the five houses in a row on our street, we have 11 girls and 0 boys! The lone boy in this picture is from down the cul-de-sac.


One of the neighborhood traditions is a kids parade. They anticipate if for weeks and love deciding how to decorate their bikes, wagons, strollers, etc. and choosing what they are going to wear.


Many of the kids decided to be "dancers," so that's why they are wearing their costumes.


Ellie enjoyed throwing candy.


We have much to be grateful for -- especially a fun, family-friendly neighborhood! The huge aerial fireworks display set off in front of my house was as good as any big show around -- it went until 11 p..m.!

Happy Fourth of July!