Independence Day is an AWESOME holiday. As a kid my family’s tradition was to make homemade ice cream, and we did fireworks out on the corner (until do-it-yourself fireworks were outlawed in California) and watch the movie “Yankee Doodle Dandy”. Now that I’m grown and married I have insisted that we keep the tradition of making homemade ice cream, but instead of just vanilla every year, like my family has always done, we have had fun making all kinds of flavors. And instead of “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, we like to watch “1776” which is an awesome musical about the writing of, and signing of the Declaration of Independence. LOVE IT!
Of course since getting married we don’t JUST watch a movie and make homemade ice cream on the 4th. The 4th of July happens to be Karen’s birthday, so that gets added to the plans. This year we had a family dinner at our place to celebrate both the holiday and Karen’s birthday. We had bratwurst, sour kraut, kartoffelsalat (warm German potato salad), a green salad, and cherries from Karen’s tree. And for dessert Laurel made a jello cake, and of course we made homemade ice cream, mixed berry ice cream to be exact. It was all yummy!
After dinner Laurel and I escaped down to the basement to work on a project that we had been working on before dinner, and everyone else just hung out. So since I was in the basement I didn’t take any pictures, but thankfully Liesl did and I’m just going to use hers. 😉
Tyra is such a social butterfly and THRIVES on attention. And I just love this next picture of Chloe. I love how her eyes ‘sparkle’:
Then here’s Kyle playing with Chloe:
When it got dark they all went outside to play with sparklers:
And when all the sparklers were gone Kyle started doing fireworks in the street, while the kids sat in the back of the MegaVan to watch:
I just love Jeremy’s face! Hehe….
When the fireworks were all gone they came back inside to hang out for a while, because Laurel and I were still working in the basement.
Dinah is such a crack up! Liesl told her to open her eyes, so she opened them as far as they could go! 
And this picture just cracks me up too. Kyle is such a great dad, I think because he never really grew up, and he just knows how to be a kid with the kids. 😉
Love you hunny. 😀
Wow – I can totally relate!! My husband is a kid at heart and will be forever. He gets down on the “kid level” so well and I love it!!
I should have taken pictures of you in the basement with Laurel, and your awesome project. Doh!!