Fun on the Fourth

Sooooo, once again, I am having to majorly backtrack in order to catch you all up in the daily goings on in our lives. We had a fun Fourth of July! I love dressing my kiddos in coordinating outfits and taking pictures. Have you noticed? This year my brother and his wife were in town for the fourth and we had a great weekend. Saturday night we grilled out at our house and played many games of croquet and corn hole. Funny story. For all you Southerners, corn hole is a bean bag toss game we Yankees play way up here in the north. It rocks. Especially its name. Anyway, our dog Glory loves to fetch. Do you see where I am going with this? Every single time someone would throw a bean bag and try to land it on the board, Glory would fetch it and bring it back to the thrower! Totally messed up the game! So we moved our game to the front yard and all was well. See, I told you it was a funny story :). Moving on. After everyone left the cookout, I sat for quite awhile in the Amish swing in our front yard rocking my sweet chubster (that would be Jack not Ben). I nuzzled his delicious head, looked at my beautiful surroundings, and watched the sunset. I realized very clearly that night just how blessed I am. Moving on again.

On Sunday night we met my family at Kings Island (an amusement park) and rode rides and watched the big firework show. The fireworks were great, but there was no music to accompany them, and it was quite crowded. We had fun, but the older I get the more staying at home and doing sparklers on the back porch appeals to me. Growing up my family never had any Fourth of July traditions. I recall eating Chinese food a few years and then mom, dad, and I would watch fireworks from the parking lot. A couple of times we went to hear a fifties band play. I love, love, love traditions and seriously need to work on starting some Fourth of July traditions with our kids. As long as we see one really great fireworks show a year (say at a Reds game...they are the best!), I am thinking maybe we should start creating traditions at home rather than braving the masses. Celebrating the freedom to freely enjoy our family and the time God has given us with each other. We shall see what transpires over the next few years!