Red, White, and Blue

The 4th of July is right up there as one of my favourite holidays. Yep, totally up there. BBQ's, fireworks, crazy jello american flag cakes, swimming pools, FIREWORKS. The longer I live in NZ, the less important the American holidays have become. Isn't that sad? Yeah, it is. But I still try to make a big deal out of them, and celebrate them with my family.

Okay, normally I think it's disgustingly cutsey when parents dress up their children in the same clothes (especially twins.....auuugggh). But C'mon....how cute are they?!

This year, I've got a new partner in crime to celebrate with. Lyndsey and Ryan and her two little girls have just moved here from California. Ryan's the new coach of the Jets (our local pro basketball team) and I met them through a mutual friend. It is a small town afterall. A few weeks ago I helped them unpack all the boxes that had arrived from the States. Boxes and boxes of American stuff. We went over to Lyndsey and Ryan's for a dinner of chili (she made it) and Apple pie (I made it) and overly priced imported Budweiser. There were lots of non Americans there too.

In Sept they sell fireworks for 4 days. 4 days only (to celebrate Guy Forks Holiday), so we stock up for occasions like this. The good thing about 4th of July in the Southern Hemisphere is that you don't have to keep the kids up till super late at night, since it gets dark around 5pm here. Party, fireworks, and then home in bed by 8pm :-)

This is Luca right after we started lighting the firworks. He was a bit scared. You can see it in his eyes. He said,k "I don't like it. I don't like it." So I picked him up and held him as we watched the from a bit further away. By the time we busted out the sparklers he saw the other older kids with them, and then he had to have one too.


When I'm not student teaching, and it's not raining, this is how I take the boys to daycare - it's a 10 min walk from our house

Hope everyone in the States had a great 4th of July!