Calling a Photographer

We celebrated the 4th of July in style.  You'll have to trust me on that.  We don't have pictures.  Nope.  Not one.  I need a photographer.

Instead of taking pictures, we served up a pancake breakfast complete with ham, fruit, OJ and, of course, vanilla syrup.  Delicious.

And then, after pulling the kids out of the pool (cause' I'm bossy like that) we had a little 4th of July program.  The youngest four took it very seriously and presented full-on reports aided by tri-fold presentation boards.  Oh, yeah.  Good stuff.  The older children gave it a whole lot of thought and visited Wikipedia, but my favorite was Cameron who pulled his notes out of his wet swim trunks.  Despite some missing pieces, he was still able to read most of it.  Even some of the adults participated, and Chris finished the program with a rousing rendition of Patrick Henry's "Give me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech.  It was enough to make us say, "Huzzah!"

Then swimming for some and a game of All-American Trivial Pursuit for others, which only ended in a tie because we had to get the BBQ going.  I think we had just about everything for lunch:  burgers, brats, hotdogs, potato salad, macaroni salad, ribs, baked beans, cole slaw, chips, salsa, cookies, cupcakes, and soda.  Some people may serve a classier buffet, but nobody serves more variety or sheer amount.  More games, swimming, and badminton in the afternoon, and we finished the night by walking to our neighbors for a few fireworks. 

It was a good day.  A happy day.  That's what I'll remember, even without the photos.