Chris and I are pretty serious about the 4th of July. We each have a special shirt that we wear every year: I wear my red mock turtleneck t-shirt and Chris wears a shirt he bought at Walgreens that reads "America. Land that I love." I told Carmen, who is spending her summer break with us, that I couldn't talk to her on the 4th unless she had an America shirt on because America does not approve of a lack of patriotism. She promptly went to Walgreens where she found her very own celebratory America shirt.
Once we were all properly dressed, we began the celebration with a discussion about what we'd eat that day. We knew we were having Chris's pizza, but Carmen wanted to know if she could have an American flag on her slice. Little did she know that I had flag toothpicks left over from Chris's buck hunter themed birthday party (I figure that anyone who loves buck hunter probably loves America and beer) and was happy to fulfill her request.
You should know, however, that Chris, Carmen, and I aren't the only ones that love America. So does the Gata. Although I'm not sure that the Gata loves America as much as she loves that the 4th of July is her birthday. She turned 6 this year and we celebrated with the "numeral sparkler" pictured above. Once it got dark, Carmen held the Gata from inside the back door so she could watch Chris light the sparkler outside while I took pictures and we all cheered. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. The Gata wasn't too thrilled with a stick lit on fire in her face, Chris's fingers got burned by the sparkler and I didn't get even one image worth showing! Sorry Gata (she doesn't look too upset in her birthday portrait though, so that's good).
In addition to the Gata's birthday, the 4th was also Chris's outdoor pizza cooking debut. He (with Carmen's help) modified our Weber grill into an outdoor pizza oven. How fun is that?
The great thing about making pizza this way is that you literally spending the entire day eating. Chris heats up grill, preps ingredients, makes pizza, and bakes pizza. We eat. He rests and repeats.
Our favorite pie was the Red, White, and Blue pie (red = marinara, white = mozzarella, and blue = blue cheese).
I'm certain that America was pleased.