The American Celebration of Independence!

One thing they didn't teach in my history class at school was the day that America declared independence from England.  However, since I have lived in the USA for 14 years, it is a history that I am now  knowledgeable about.  Whilst I am very proud to be British, my home is also here in America and "when in Rome...". So, on the fourth of July of every year, I join in the celebrations that take place, after all my husband and daughter are both yankee doodles.

This year, we started our day by attending a flag raising ceremony at our church building, followed by a breakfast.  The flag ceremony was great, the younger scouts raised the flag whilst three of our other young men played the Star Spangled Banner on their brass instruments.  Matthew is the Young Men's President for our ward, and was up very early cooking ham's for the breakfast.  The Young Women and their leaders also worked hard for this event, it was a great start to a fabulous day.

One of the favourite parts of the morning were the balloon hats that a couple from our ward made for each of the children.  Here Amelia and her friend Tanya model their hats.

It was the perfect weather to fly the flag.

Daddy and daughter pose for a picture in their patriotic colours.

After the breakfast, we headed to Independence for the annual parade.  We went with our friends the Rosenbalm's, each of the children had bags, because they knew that candy would be thrown from the floats in the parade.

Amelia's friend Rylee and her mum also joined us for the fun.

We found the perfect spot, and Matthew looked cool as he enjoyed the festivities.

Just to show there are no hard feelings from this Brit, here I am with a little American flag, unfortunately I forgot to bring my Union Jack that decorates my office at work - maybe next year.

Amelia enjoyed a little snack as she waited for the parade to start, a peanut butter and jam sandwich, it doesn't get much more American than that. 

The Rosenbalm's children's dad is a volunteer for the fire department in our County, and this is one of their engines.  The red headed young man in the picture below is one of his older sons, the yellow helmet he is carrying is full of candy to pass out to the little ones waiting anxiously at the curb.  As soon as he got to Amelia, Rylee and his other siblings sitting there waiting, he stopped, and tipped the entire helmet of candy in front of them...favoritism...yes, of course!  The kids loved it and screamed with excitement.  Don't worry the helmet was refilled for the other kids on the curb.

 

My little girl ended up with quite a dirty face.  I had put sunscreen on her and since she would touch the dusty street and then her face, she ended up looking pretty smudgy, but pretty all the same.  She looked so cute in her red, white and blue.

After the parade was finished, we headed home, as you can see, Amelia just wasn't ready for the fun to be over, especially since we had already told her that she would be going down for a nap as soon as lunch was over.

I teased her by telling her how great her pouty look was and that I wanted another picture of her sad face, after hearing this, look at what she did...was a rascal!  Maybe I'll use that reverse psychology the next time I want her to smile for a picture.

After a lazy afternoon, and naps for Amelia and daddy, we got up and went to Subway to pick up sandwiches to take to the firework display.  We saw our friends the Workman's when we arrived, they have a daughter a few months older than Amelia, so it was fun to sit with them for the evening.  We wrapped up in blankets and at 10:00 pm, the fireworks began.  They were amazing!!!!

 

 

 

 

The firework display lasted an entire half hour.  We walked back to the car and by the time we got out of the car park and drove home, it was midnight.  My girl fell asleep in her car seat, after all it had been an exhausting day, albeit a fabulous day!

Happy birthday America!