Our July 4th

I really love this holiday but this year was special for a couple of reasons. First I decided to have a small farewell BBQ for the Horstmann's and second we live right on the parade route.

The BBQ was awesome! Most of my closest friends and their children were here which was a blast. It was like family! We ate yummy yummy food and had gorgeous weather! The kids were fairly well behaved and really got into the holiday.

The parade was amazing. The tradition of this holiday, in our town, is long standing and very important to it's residents. On July 1st they are allowed to put chairs along the parade route so they can ensure a good spot. It's very strange to drive down the road, for 3 days, and see empty chairs just all lined up. On the morning of the 4th is was so quiet it was weird but, by 1p.m. it was crazy. I really liked watching all of this unravel and know that I had a front row seat for it all. It was great to see so many participants and cheer them on. The kids were up dancing and cheering too. I took a million photos but only posted a few. I posted the Olympic "Chicago 2016" because I really hope that Chicago can host the Olympics. And I love love the mini CTA bus not to mention the cute kids in front of it. The CTA buses were on the other side of the street so before the parade started I took the kids over and they got to sit inside and get photos taken.

That night we ran over to the beach to watch a great fireworks display. Like I said they really take pride in this holiday and the fireworks seemed to last forever! The coolest ones looked like planets! Can you believe they can do stuff like that? Evelyn kept saying "Mommy! Fireworks!"

I'm so proud to be a free American!!