INDEPENDENCE DAY!

A few days before the 4th of July I was talking to the kids about what we normally do for this U.S. holiday. We talked about the fireworks and BBQ (which we had already planned on doing) and then I mentioned that we normally go to the parade and it would be fun to do our own parade here. Madi took this idea and expanded upon it. Thursday we went out and bought streamers in red and white (they didn't have blue), some blue balloons (which although were blown up didn't make it into the parade somehow), and some sparklers.

As soon as Madi got home from school on Friday then went into her room and shut the door. They taped and laughed and couldn't wait for Kev to come home. Madi told me she was the brains behind the operation and Cooper helped out where he could - he got to hold the tape and scissors (sounds to me like he was the cheap labor). My job was to keep the baby away from the room until they were ready for her. Here are some pictures from our own 4th of July Parade!

Preparation

The parade down the hallway complete with floats, scooters, and fairies!

The proud spectators!

Kev then took his flashlight outside with him to cook the steaks on the BBQ and we then had corn on the cob and watermelon with our steaks along with some American lemonade! It was a typical 4th of July dinner except the potato salad. I didn't think about it until I sat down to eat or I might have made some. Oh well!

After dinner came the sparklers. After instructions about where we do and do not touch the burning sparklers and other safety issues we headed outside bundled up to do our sparklers. The kids had a good time. I told them that when I was a kid I used to love to dance around on the grass with my sparkler - so Madi and I did just that. I was also thinking that normally we are outside watching fireworks and Madi ends up inside looking out the window because she can't handle the noise. This was the first year she was outside the whole time - true we only did sparklers, but still...

After sparklers we headed in to eat our cake. When explaining to Cooper what Independence Day was I told him that it was sort of like a birthday for the United States - since he has a birthday coming up soon that seemed to click for him. So he told me that we needed a cake. This is what I came up with. I originally was going to do it all with frosting, but when searching the cupboard found that I didn't have any blue food coloring. I was then frantically searching for something that I could use instead. I saw strawberries in the fridge and called Kev to stop and get some blueberries on his way home. After a bit of stress this is the final result. Not bad, not Heather standard by any means, but not bad!! I thought it was funny for us to eat cake on the 4th of July instead of popsicles or banana boats done in Dera's fire - but we may have to start a new tradition because it was really good and with all the fruit on it seemed very summery too!

So our first Independence Day in Australia was a success - not the same, but I think we did a pretty good job. It was also the coldest day of the year so far - CRAZY!! Last year Kev was actually in Australia for the 4th and I was home with the kids, Rylee was a month old, and we had a great family BBQ at Dera's complete with swimming, fireworks, and banana boats. This year we were all together and had a fantastic time. Cooper says that it was a "GREAT FAMILY FUN DAY!" That's all that matters right?!