Happy Independence Day!

Growing up, Independence Day was one of my favorite holidays and it still is! I love watching the fireworks. To me, there is something just magical, romantic, something about them. I don't know what it is. When I first started dating, I always thought that my first kiss would be during the fireworks. Oh, I was wrong. So wrong. I wanted them at our wedding but that was not an option at the venue. My last chance for my own fireworks display is at my funeral. So to whoever is planning my funeral, please have a huge fireworks show there. Thanks.

When I was little, we would have our friends, neighbors, and family over for an all day long event. We would spend the day outside playing and shooting off bottle rockets and sparklers. Then we would grill out, eat some wonderfully tasty food, and then spend the evening shooting off fireworks with our entire block! I looked forward to it every year. As I grew up, we continued the tradition but without the family and we started bringing our boyfriends or my brother would have his girlfriends over. The last Independence Day that we spent together as a family was in 2008 and it was different than we usually did it, but still nice to spend the evening with family watching fireworks. Since then, we haven't had much of a tradition of our own. This year was a nice change to that and we had a wonderful day.

It was far too hot outside to really enjoy being out there but we managed and stayed out for a parade with our best friends. The kids all collected lots of candy and treats. I'm happy to announce that all three of us in our family was dressed with red, white or blue on. It's a big deal to me that we dress in appropriate colors on holidays! We planned to go to a local lake and swim on the "beach" they have there but after the heat from the parade, we couldn't manage to go. Instead, we did a little back to school shopping, had a picnic in the car (we planned on a picnic at the lake but since we didn't go there, we ate sandwiches, chips, and watermelon while driving on the interstate) then headed off to the movies. We saw The Amazing Spiderman, played outside with some chalk, and then had some pizza. The husband and son are playing Lego Batman again tonight while I'm on the blog. I do have the blinds opened in the office and am enjoying the neighborhood fireworks that I can see.

I always thought when I was growing up that we would continue the same tradition that we had with my family but it has not been the same since my mom passed away. Even though my mom didn't really care for Independence Day, she always made it seem like such a special day. Now that she's gone, my family seems to do their own thing on the holidays. I hope that we end up making Independence Day a great memory for Logan every year going forward so he has some traditions to pass on to his children.

We have our final Independence Day plans for Friday and Saturday and those are the ones that I am most excited about. We will be going to our towns fireworks display Friday night with my best friend and Logan's two best friends. I plan on eating roasted corn on the cob and letting the boys play at the park until the fireworks begin. Then Saturday night we are going to watch our towns Independence Day parade and the fireworks again that night. Saturday night I am going all out with snacks and treats and having deep fried oreos and deep fried reese cups (I look forward to these all year long). I'm hoping the fireworks and parade are especially good this year since the husbands company is the main sponsor of the events. Next year, I need to see about getting Logan in the parade somehow!

Now, here are some photos from our Independence Day!

See, watermelon in the car. 

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