happy holiday

We had a great 4th July!

We started the morning with a patriotic breakfast:

Buttered toast with strawberry jam, bananas and blueberries.

Charlotte wasn't a massive fan of the toast (which I could not believe as she usually loves jam on toast!) so she had red white and blue cereal instead:

I hasten to add that we do not feed the kids artificial food colourings every day for breakfast. 

This cereal is a limited edition one for the olympics which Jeremy brought home from work.  

Then it was time to hit the Schoolcraft parade. 

It was a scorcher of a day so we were lucky to find a spot shaded by a tree. 

They start the parade with the national anthem. I love that everyone stands up, the men take their hats off and even the little kids put their hands over their hearts. A proud nation. 

It's my favourite parade because there are loads of noisy firetrucks at the end: 

And plenty of tractors for Toby:

The kids loved waving their flags and Toby was on a mission to collect every piece of 'candy' he could! The people walking alongside the floats and vehicles throw tootsie rolls, salt water taffy, bubble gum and lollipops. Toby had the lollipops open before we could blink! I think he probably had 5 that morning! Whoops! 

In Michigan, locals can vote for their senator, sherriff and prosecutor so they are always at the parades 'meeting' the public and handing out flyers:

And not forgetting the fab cars and horses:

After the parade we headed home to cool off and I got chance to open my birthday presents (a day early because we were heading out early the next day to get to the airport for our holiday!!).

My favourite present had to be 'bunny bear' that the kids chose for me. She has 2 hearts that the kids blessed with their wishes and kisses! 

Of course it wouldn't be 4th July without a BBQ:

And fun in the sprinklers!:

We finished the day with fireworks in the back yard. We couldn't wait for it to get dark but we enjoyed them anyway! It was still really hot and humid, even at 9:30 at night! 

What a fun day and so nice to have Granny and Papa with us to celebrate.

And a big thank you to Papa for providing a lot of the photos on this post.