I have carved out our next several July 4th weekends to do exactly what we did this past 4th of July. It’s there on the calendar, in pen, and it’s not subject to change. This weekend was the stuff American childhood dreams are made of…
It’s eating lunches with your best friend/cousin on the front porch in rocking chairs.
On Bella: white dress – Gap Kids
It’s boys playing rough on a hand-seeded Kentucky Blue Grass lawn under the pine trees.
It’s wandering and exploring and being an unsupervised country babe. It’s being dressed in red, white, and blue like, pretty much, all weekend.
It’s playing with kittens and doggies you just can’t have anywhere around you at home, because your mom and brother are the most allergic people on the planet. It’s hanging out with the boys which, for my girls, is a novel and cool thing to do.
It’s helping Aunt Chantelle make curtains for a tree house that Papa just built this spring.
It’s a feeling of pride to be a part of something bigger than you; something that will be remembered.
It’s playing two stories above the ground, in a child’s dream house amidst the trees; and if you’re one of the big boys, sleeping up there at night on cots with your cousins as the rain pours down outside.
It’s a Grammy-made obstacle course around the yard, involving nothing more than a Little Tykes slide, a hula hoop, an old water jug, a humming bird feeder, a ball in a laundry basket, a homemade sponge bomb in a bucket, and a toddler trampoline. All of which keeps the kids leaping and somersaulting and running for hours.
It’s a semi-impromptu water war in which everyone, and I mean everyone, is fair game. Sorry babies.
It’s sleeping on the lawn in a beast of a tent with every cousin over the age of two.
It’s s’mores, of course. Every childhood ought to be filled with at least 100 instances of roasting marshmallows over a campfire.
It’s sparklers at dusk. Even the babies get to play with a little fire.
It’s roman candles, and spinners, and firecrackers for the big kids to set off with their dads.
It’s an American flag flying high on a pole beside the old willow tree. It’s bustling family dinners picnic-style in the backyard. It’s ranger rides down some old back road (sometimes in the middle of the pouring rain). It’s a million types of desserts. It’s being with people you love in a place you love. It’s everything that’s still good and wholesome and free in this blessed nation.
These are our not-so-tentative 4th of July plans for the next few years to come.
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