{pretty, happy, funny, real} Independence Day Edition

~Captuing the context of contentment in everyday life

every Thursday Like Mother Like Daughter~

This Independence Day was our 240th Celebration. That means parades, picnics and fireworks for all! My husband is an Army Veteran and he loves quizzing the children on the meaning of Independence Day, the symbolism or our flags and our American traditions in general. How does your family get into Independence Day?

This summer has been filled with so many great memories and this Independence Day was no different. The boys were so ready for this Independence Day! Wearing their homemade shirts and red and white sunglasses. The link to the instructions for our DIY shirts is listed at the bottom of the post. We had also purchased some little flags to bring during the fireworks display but we forgot them in the car. This picture was right before we arrived at my cousin's house for a potluck and relaxing day at the pool. 

This picture makes me laugh because Goalie would't take off dad's jacket and Little Man is still holding our trash from our snacks while attempting to hide them. Little Man's eyes are closed again too! This poor kid was so confused with the extra flashes on the camera because it was so dark on the Golf Course!

The boys were laying on the picnic blanket and snuggling while patiently waiting on the fireworks. I thought Goalie was going to fall asleep because we stick to a routine when we are home at the boys are in bed no later than 9pm normally. The firework show didn't even start until 9:30pm and you can see the sleepiness in both of the kids faces.

This is such a bad quality picture but it was one of the only pictures we were able to take together as a family. We took this picture as we arrived at the golf course from my cousins house to enjoy the Louisville, CO fireworks. As we waited for the patriotic display, there was a band playing beautiful music and vendors selling food, drinks and tickets for games. Goalie really enjoyed the music because he is a huge fan of Curious George and there is an episode where they make a "wind symphony". He kept telling us that he was waiting for Curious George to arrive!

As you can see from our pictures, we made our own patriotic star shirts for our 4th of July Celebration. We found this neat shirt on Pinterest. Everyone had a blast making these shirts... including my husband! My husbands shirt is pictured above and mine is below. The kids shirts came out unique as well as you can see from the other pictures throughout the post. The shirts were super easy to make. All you need are some plain white t-shirts, pencils with nice erasers and paint. It's a little difficult to see in the pictures but I purchased metallic paints so they would sparkle.

The fireworks show we watched was the best we have ever experienced! The weather was perfect: No humidity, rain or bugs! Louisville did such a great job creating a family fun atmosphere with the bouncy house, music and food vendors. We were able to lay on our blanket and look up at the display and enjoy the whole show.

Here is that amazing band I spoke about earlier. They were amazing! They played such a great assortment of songs including patriotic and musicals. The background music really set the mood and they continued to play music until after the fireworks started. Goalie was in awe! I think I must have a musician on my hands. 

The only thing I wish I could have changed about our 4TH of July Celebration is that I would have taken more pictures! I realized I didn't take any pictures of our potluck or while we were at the pool when I started this post yesterday. 

I hope you all enjoyed Independence Day as much as we did and that your summer continues to be amazing.

God Bless America!