Independence Day

I am so grateful for the blessing of being born a citizen of the United States of America.  There are so many people around the world who have to sacrifice so much to obtain what I was born with: citizenship in this country of opportunity.  I take it for granted so often, but I just want to express how grateful I am for all the men and women who founded this remarkable land and thank all the men and women who continue to fight to defend our freedom.  We are truly blessed.  Every time I return to the US from an international trip, I always breathe a sigh of relief and exclaim "God bless America!" It really is the promised land.

We had a fun time celebrating the 4th of July at home this year.  We all got dressed in our Fourth of July clothes and had a family carnival and a family "parade". 

Daddy setting up the carnival games

The whole family.  Wow, there's a lot of us!

 Our little carnival: We played in the sprinklers, had a slip and slide, hula hoop contest, played Kornhole, bolo toss (ladderball), and tetherball, and had face painting.  For our young crew, it was just perfect. 

Face painting was the main attraction.  All the girls were very excited to have their faces painted.

 After the carnival, the girls wanted to have a parade.  Since our town doesn't do a parade on the fourth of July, we had our own parade.  We paraded down the street and to the park, then we played for a little bit, then we paraded home. 

Patriotic Claire

Born in the USA!

My American baby

Happy Independence Day!

That evening, we enjoyed the fireworks from our backyard with a few friends.  The kids got red, white, and blue glow sticks and we all loved the fireworks show, which I think is pretty good for our little town.  

I'm proud to be an American!! Thanks be to God for this great country!