Proud

Not only am I proud to be an American, I am proud to be an American wife and mom. Yesterday was one of those days that I am so proud of my family .. for the family that we are.

Fireworks art with copied Pledge of Allegiance

First of all, we had school yesterday. "What?" you might say. Or, more specifically you might say, "You are a weird homeschooling family." Maybe so, but it turned out to be one of our most memorable 4th holidays yet. In fact, both Eli and Brynne said this was the best 4th of July ever!

We had a great day of learning about Independence Day. I broke up the day into four sets. In between sets the kids were sent to play and relax. That way, it didn't feel like drudgery. Another thing I did to encourage good attitudes was to take a piece of paper and put four dashes on it. If they completed each set of schoolwork without grumbling (really, this was more for Eli, but it gave Brynne an opportunity to encourage Eli not to grumble), then they earned a letter. Once all the letters were filled in, they earned a special activity. THAT was a huge motivator for Eli! I am planning to use this system in conjunction with the Grumble-Meter once school starts.

We read lots of books, did a couple of patriotic crafts, did some copywork and vocabulary work. I really felt like they had a true grasp of the meaning of Independence Day, and that was important to me.

Dawson was scheduled to work, on accident, so was home by 9:30 a.m. (and we was glad about that!) We picked up his friend, Wesley, to spend a day or two. We grabbed a few fireworks, and then came home for a yummy dinner of grilled burgers, grilled corn, fries and onion rings. A perfect 4th meal!

And we topped it off with some homemade red, white, and blue popcicles (not so white, it ran into the blue because I didn't start this project soon enough and didn't have time for the blue to free completely before adding the white).

Eli's parachute guy from the firework he chose.

The school reward was earned, so we loaded up and went to Antonio's house for a SWIM. Antonio's family has a lake house and is gone most weekends and holidays. They graciously allow us to use their pool while they are gone. This is a huge treat for my kids!

We came home and shot off our fireworks. We only buy kid-friendly fireworks, but they were still so fun!

Snakes!

Smoke bombs are fun.

Poppers!

We found the parachute on the other side of our neighbor's house!

Our finale that Brynne chose.

And, our neighbors go all out, so we got to witness a great fireworks display without leaving our driveway!

Our entire day was filled with happiness, family, fun, and lots of love. Eli and Brynne were right, it was the best 4th of July ever!