Happy 4th of July!!!!

Growing up, the 4th of July was always a highlight! We had our little town parade with festivities the entire week leading up to and following it! Definitely great memories! As it often seems, I have "fallen" in the area of teaching my youngest (Mia) about all of our American traditions. All 3 of my kids have school today (Bryan has off though, and the kids only go to school until 1:00, so it isn't that bad). I did get the "Yankee Doodle" book out of the library to read to Mia. After we sung the song many times, she looked more closely at the pictures and saw the fireworks. Her response was, "Mommy, is that the English Sylvester" Translation: "English" means people who speak English, not "American" and "Sylvester" is the German word for New Years. She associates Fireworks with New Years, so of course she thought the 4th of July was the American New Years. Then I tried to explain to her about declaring our Independence from England, and she got all confused because some of our very favorite people live in England and we love England, so why would we be celebrating getting rid of England. As much as I think this experience of growing up in a foreign country will benefit her in life, I also feel like some day she will be quite confused as to the typical American way (ie. she's used to going to school on Thanksgiving, getting 2 weeks off for Pentacost, getting a week off in celebration of the period leading up to Lent etc.. In German they say  it is "komisch" and I definitely agree! Happy 4th of July!!