Happy 4th of July and a Start of Summer Recap

Happy 4th of July!! Ours was very warm {fun too}, as was the case for most of the nation, but we are so thankful to celebrate the birthday and freedom of a great country, and one that we are truly blessed to live in!! Many of these pictures below were taken back in early June at one of the events that we always kick off Summer with ~ Reclaiming Our Heritage, Multi-Era Military Re-enactment. Our girls love going to this event so much and it's a wonderful way to learn about American History. It always makes me feel very patriotic to learn about the lives of American soldiers throughout the history of our country. There are so many who have made such a great sacrifice.

Due to funding issues, last year was supposed to be their Grand Finale event, but there were so many people disappointed that it was brought back for at least one more year.

They had an eat your weight in popcorn contest. Just kidding, but that's a lot of kettle corn and the five of us ate.it.all.

A serious conversation being had over kettle corn and root beer. I often wonder what they're talking about.

They had a booth where current military servicemen were applying fake wounds to any child who wanted one. To which Alyssa promptly said "No, thank you." But it was like artwork! This man was so careful with every detail of Emma's injury, and seemed to take a lot of pride in his work.

Emma loved her wound! She was very proud and kept staring at it like it was a badge of honor or something. In some ways, she is a tiny bit like the little boy her poor Daddy never had.

A close up of the wound we still have resting on a loose leaf sheet of paper because Emma can't bear to part with the fake shard of glass.

Rebekah was slightly less impressed with her bruise :)

We got to do lots of cool things like color patriotic pictures that were sent to soldiers currently deployed, sing patriotic songs, look at the first generation "viewmaster", see newspapers that date back to the American Revolution, and Emma tried to convince me she would wear the raccoon hat to school all Winter if we would buy it for her.

Alyssa not looking very comfortable on the bed of the injured.

And apparently we need to have another child so that Abraham Lincoln can have a face in this photo.

The same weekend back in June, and again for the 4th of July, the girls had parades and gymnastics exhibitions.


Aren't these patriotic leos the cutest?

And because my mom has to be one of the coolest Grandmas ever:
She and Alyssa competed as a relay team in a duathlon. Alyssa ran two miles, my mom biked 10 miles, then Alyssa ran two more miles. Pretty awesome, huh?

Alyssa finishing strong. She's all pumped to compete again next year!