Happy Fourth of July!

Did you have a good day? We had a nice, quiet day at home. We watched the Capitol Fourth show on PBS. Did you? It's become an entertaining tradition. My kids were completely amazed that Barry Manilow could sing without moving his cheeks. A true blue miracle of modern science, I tell ya! I tried to explain that he is quite a respected musician but hearing him start singing "I've been alive forever..." and then "I can't smile... without you" really didn't help. They were rolling on the floor laughing. Then, later, when I was singing along to the Neil Diamond songs (like my mama taught me), I hear my oldest seated behind me say, "I notice it's all the older people singing along." Thanks, kid!

Here are some more scenes from our fourth...

 The three middles painted their own shirts. The Professor wasn't up for it this year plus he was helping out his Dad with the rebuilding of a computer.

 BigBoy's shirt

 Sunshine's sweet heart shirt

Shortcake's shirt was inspired by the awesome pillow designs over at Heart Felt Design. She calls it "American Ninja".

 Cupcake's shirt looks a lot like her onesie from last year. We thought about doing something different, but she's still our little cupcake and she outgrew that onesie pretty fast. Color (un)coordinated leggings courtesy of her colorblind daddy.

These strawberries were favorites last year so we made them again...

 ...along with some edible sparklers!

 And since there was ice cream in the freezer, we made some of Jessica's colorful cones.

We finished up the evening with a reading of the Declaration of Independence and an explanation of what it meant and what it still means today. It was a lovely day.