The Fourth-something to celebrate!!

So it has been a little while since I have blogged. The other day was the fourth of July and as this blog's title states I had something to celebrate. I will break up what my celebrations were into categories..

Family! We went to my parents for the fourth and my sister M and her little boys Gand N came as well. We had a delicious lunch of hamburgers, salad, melon, and other delectable things that go along with picnics in our family. We then got out a wading pool and the kids played in the pool for a while. It was awesome to watch them get each other wet and M and I also waded in the pool and ran through the sprinklers. Very refreshing!!! During this time G chased Grandma and soaked her it was so funny!

Life!Well, as we were sitting around my sweetie, C, was taking pictures of random things. He believes that he has become an expert insect photographer. There was a beautiful dragon fly that flew by and C stated, "land on me!" Would you believe that it did? It landed right on C's pant leg so that he could take close-up pictures of it. He got some great pictures too. In fact, some of them are in my opinion close to the caliber of a famous wild life magazine. I will try and post a picture that he took.
Anyway, after taking many pictures of this creature it took off flying. Later, I was playing monster with the kids and Numero Uno pointed out to me a dragon fly lying on the ground unable to fly. I immediately went in to tell C and he came out and closely examined the dragon fly and determined that this was his dragon fly. It was so sweet to watch C care for the little guy that he had bonded with earlier and agonize with him as the little insect tried and tried to fly away. C could not determine what was wrong with the little guy and grew mesmerized by it, watching it struggle and then watching its little abdomen breathe in and out. I guess it was neat because even though it was an insect and we see thousands of them everyday and even call them pesky sometimes it reminded me that they are alive as well and we need to respect them. This does not however mean that I won't kill spiders if needed. I always feel bad when I have to do that.

Snaps!! I forgot how much fun snaps are and as Numero Uno, Dos, G, and N were playing with them it was hard not to get caught up in the magic of snaps. I remember having snap wars with my sister and friends as a kid. Great memories!

Freedom!! I am ashamed to say that I started getting lost in all that goes along with the Fourth of July and forgetting why we celebrate it. As we were lying on our backs at the park watching magnificent fire works light up the sky it hit me that we were celebrating our freedom and thanking people for giving and sacrificing their lives. I was very touched and then at that exact moment some people behind us started blaring some rap crap and I was offended. How dare they! I bet they don't even remember the reason that are celebrating so I started to sing "I am Proud to be an American" and even though I don't remember all of the song it helped me feel better.

Being a Parent!! So this is our first Fourth of July to have our two cute little girls and let me tell you it was great! It was great to watch the magic of them throwing snaps, lighting fireworks and playing with our family. It was wonderful to lie on the grass and look up at the massive fireworks over head and have a little hand rested on yours and hear the little girl say, "mommy, you are my best mommy" or "mommy, you are my friend" as they toggle between me, C and my parents. Truly a great experience and so different from fourths in the past. Not to say that Fourths in the past were bad, I loved watching fireworks with C but as any holiday did I always would get a little wishful and depressed. Not this fourth, there was a lot to celebrate!!