Our Fourth

God Bless America,

Land that I love.

Stand beside her, and guide her

Thru the night with a light from above.

From the mountains, to the prairies,

To the oceans, white with foam,

God Bless America, my home sweet home.

I love that song. I love the 4th. I love America and our flag, and am so thankful for the country we live in and the freedoms we enjoy.

We started our celebrations on Saturday by grilling and chilling with friends, and then the fireworks display. I was worried how Presley would do with the fireworks, mainly because they were way past her bedtime, but also because they are so loud. She did great…she sat in my lap, laid her head back on my chest and watched and seemed to enjoy…she never flinched. We watched the fireworks in the same spot as last year, and it made me think back to last year when I was pregnant with Miss PK, and SO, SO hot.  Here’s me, Mattie, and my Presley bump in 2009:

I was praising God that she was in my lap, and not in my belly this year!

 

We started our 4th with church on Sunday morning, and had what I thought was wonderful service that was so appropriate for the day. It included a time of coming to the altar in prayer for our country, that to me was very moving. We can gripe all we want, and disagree all we want, and be dissatisfied with who is and who isn’t in office until we’re blue in the face, and it won’t change a thing. But the one thing that we can do that has the potential to change things is pray for this country and those who lead it.

After church, we hit up one of the fireworks tents in town, and picked up some small scale stuff to do at home later that night. We at a quick lunch at home, and then we ALL FOUR went down for naps and all slept about three hours. Normally this would make me feel yuck, as I don’t typically take naps, but I woke up feeling quite refreshed.

 

That afternoon while Matthew was grilling, I tried to get some pictures of my girls in their dresses. Presley was all for it, but Mattie…not so much.

Here’s PK looking like her happy self:

She was happy until she noticed the dogs looking at her. She was watching and watching for them…

And then Drake ran right up to her and licked her right on the face and ran away. She was so mad she threw down her flag:

Mattie would not look at the camera. I think she was contemplating Independence Day and reflecting on her freedoms:

That evening, I attempted to feed Presley her supper, but she was just not interested. She ate about half her usual amount and then locked her lips and wouldn’t eat a bite more. I left her in her chair while I was cleaning up the kitchen, and Mattie came along and said “I bet I can get her to eat”. And guess what. She did…Presley opened up like a little bird and Mattie fed her the rest of her supper.

Mattie mothers Presley so much, and is such a good little mama. When looking at the above pictures, imagine Mattie in a high-pitched, baby-talk voice saying “open your mouth, sweetie, open up” “good job, pwesley! you are such a good eater”.

 

After we got PK down for the night, and the sun went down, it was time to play.

We covered ourselves from head to toe with this stuff:

And still got mosquito bit.

Matthew had a huge fire going to burn up some brush and limbs, which is why it looks like our yard is on fire...it was:

We got Mattie started with some sparklers:

Instead of buying the cheapo, basic sparklers, we got some fancy ones that changed colors and really flared up about half way through. Mattie was a little unsure of them. Several times she threw them down and ran. Honestly, they were probably a little much for a 4yr old. Here she is looking a little scared:

Matthew trying to show her how it’s done:

And she gave it another shot, and ended up doing ok.

We bought things like sparklers, those black snakes that just grow when you light them, and a few popping firecrakers…like I said, small scale stuff. And we bought one innocent looking little lady bug thing, that we didn’t know what it did, but thought it must be harmless. We did it last, and turns out, it wasn’t too small scale. It lit up and blew off HUGE sparks, then flew WAY up in the air while making this LOUD screeching noise, all the while blowing off sparks, and flew all the way into our neighbors yard. You should have seen our faces!

It was a wonderful day. And now a short work week. There isn’t much that can beat that.

 

Just for fun, here's Mattie on her first 4th of July back in 2006.