Happy Fourth!

We began our celebration on Thursday night with our town's fireworks display.

Just like last year, I loved playing with the 'fireworks' setting on my camera!

Then on Friday the boys and I made this craft together. It seems like it has been a while since we made an honest-to-goodness craft project, and I definitely intend to get back to doing these kinds of things more often. Sorry... no pics of the finished products, but they did turn out cute, and I have pics of the boys working on them instead:

We finished up Friday with a hamburger cookout (eat IN because of the heat), complete with watermelon, and our fancy fireworks centerpiece the boys and I made earlier.

Today started with fireworks pancakes, made with my mustard bottle trick. Absolutely no pics though, because they looked more like red & blue sprinkled spiders! But the boys liked them, so all was good.

Daddy filled the pool and the boys got two good swims in before supper time, which was grilled chicken and ribs and garden fresh corn on the cob.

So I feel like we've had a nice little Fourth of July weekend!

And then I read this evening about a company of Marines in Afghanistan. These men spent their Fourth of July marching across the farmlands of Afghanistan in 100+ degree heat, carrying packs weighing 50-100 pounds each, on average, with hardly enough water to keep them alert and in good enough shape enough for the march. Some of them even wished they had needed to return fire by now, because at least that would have lightened the burdens they were carrying.

And it is largely because of bravery and sacrifices like that throughout the past 220 years that my family was able to celebrate this day in peace, and can get up tomorrow and go to the church of our choice to worship without fear of persecution.

So I say 'thank you' to those men, and the thousands of men and women like them, both those in current service and veterans, and their families. And I also say 'thank you' to the Lord for the blessings he has allowed this country to have.

Because we are surely blessed.