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. 

happy fourth of july!

It's the 4th of July tomorrow.
A national holiday celebrating independence from the United Kingdom.
So what will we do? Brits living in America? Celebrate with the Americans? Give them a pat on the back and congratulate them on no longer being a part of our country?
Well not quite but it is fun to be a part of the celebrations and join with people here in celebrating their freedom.
I am sat writing this post whilst watching the classic movie 'Independence Day' on the tv!

I have put up a few decorations around the house...

I covered a canvas frame with 'holiday' fabric and hung it in the laundry by the garage door:

I made this wreath by covering a foam wreath with material strips and made the flowers by pinning small squares of felt which I folded into triangles:

It is hanging above the fireplace. 

The bunting was made using the remaining fabric tied onto a piece of string: 

I made this wreath to hang on the front door along with our two flags:

Shops and businesses are full of patriotic decorations, there seem to be more flags flying and there are plenty of red, white and blue food to be found in the supermarkets. The biggest difference I have seen this year is due to a change in the law in Michigan. This year the law was changed so that it is now legal to sell fireworks that shoot up into the air. So I have seen one of these in almost every large parking lot outside shops and supermarkets in Kalamazoo:

They are tents selling fireworks. They have been around for a week or so and I have definitely seen and heard a lot more fireworks going off in the neighbourhood this past week.

We bought a small box from Meijer and are planning to set them off in the back yard tomorrow. I say that but I have heard a lot of people saying they are worried as it has been so hot recently that all of our grass has dried out and gone brown and there is a risk of fires! We have a sprinkler system that has kept most of our grass green so I think we should be ok! 

Jeremy says there was a mass exodus out of the office today. Lots of people go away on 'vacation' or to spend time with family. A lot of people here only get a couple of weeks of holiday entitlement a year so they have to make the most of the public holidays. A gperk of being an ex-pat is that Jeremy gets his 5 weeks UK entitlement, a good chunk of which we use to go on home leave. 

We are planning to go to a parade in a small town called Schoolcraft tomorrow morning and then have a BBQ in the back yard in the afternoon. Jeremy's parents are here for a week or so and are having the kids for us over the weekend so we can go on a long weekend away to Vancouver (can't wait!!). 

I will post pics of the 4th and our trip when I get back. Have a good week! :)