Monday, June 25, 2007

Everyone is in a Patriotic Mood

The "Celebrate America" Tribute yesterday was incredible. Our son enjoyed seeing all of the servicemen in uniform and he thought it was ultra-cool to see the men repel from the ceiling during the military tribute. Sam waved his little flag with such pride - it reminded me of a poem that copied for a 4th of July scrapbook page years ago - I will share it with you -

I want my boy to be the best,
I want him to be great;
I want him in Life's distant West,
Prepared for any fate.
I want him to be simple, too.
Though clever, ne'er to brag,
But Oh! I want him, through and through,
To love his country's flag.

When I was a little girl, my family lived in a small southern textile town. Each 4th of July brought on a special town-wide celebration - sack races, diving for dollars, climbing the greased pole (yes, seriously), chasing a greased pig (I promise I am not kidding), three legged race, watermelon eating contest - you get the picture. The highlight of the celebration was a bicycle decorating contest - Mom would take us to KMart to buy streamers, crepe paper, tissue, artificial flowers, and anything else we could use to decorate our bikes - my brother and I had a deal that which ever one of us won - we would split the money - a great deal for my brother since I was the most creative of the two - older siblings do take advantage of us younger ones - don't they? I usually placed and had to split the money with my brother.

Activities such are those are forever etched in my memory - and I remember almost every boy in my elementary class wanted to be "THE PRESIDENT" when they grew up - sad, our young b0ys don't say that anymore - the office of presidency now receives such criticism -

What are you doing to teach your children how to love their country? What activities will you participate in with your family to celebrate the 4th? You never know how it will touch their hearts!

Have a great day in Jesus and take some time to pray for our country and those who serve to protect it -

Kim



6 comments:

ThreeGirlyGirls said...

I miss those small town 4th of July parties!! That's how I grew up too....until we moved across the world!! When we lived in Lake Park they had a 4th of July celebration too......decorating bikes and all kinds of find stuff! I'll miss it this year! I'm not sure what we'll do this year....I was thinking the girls may be old enough to take them downtown to the fireworks......if they still do that?

Kim said...

Harrisburg is having a small towm celebration - I think that is what we are going to do. :)You can go online to www.harrisburgjuly4th.com
for more info.

Tisha said...

Hey - my parents live in Harrisburg and we have been to the parade and the park events for several years. It is GREAT!!! We usually do fireworks downtown but did the ones at Harrisburg last year and they were great!!! If you go to the parade, get there early. People start putting out chairs and lining up on Hwy 49 EARLY!!!! But it is fun!!!

Valarie said...

Hey Kim. Glad you enjoyed CA yesterday! It was such a blast!

It was great meeting you at VBS too! Thanks for introducing yourself. Have a GREAT week!

ThreeGirlyGirls said...

Oh cool, I'm so glad you told me about that! I think we'll head that way too! Looks like fun! Thanks!

Kim said...

Thanks for stopping by - I was excited when I logged on and saw 3 new comments -

Tisha - I have met several people lately who have said, "You've got Grace in your class - we are friends of the Margraves!" They seemed as excited as I am :)Thanks for the tip on the parade - we will go early. You will also love Mrs. Pazun - my son had her last year and he ADORES her!

Val - Thanks for stopping by - it was nice to meet you too! You guys were incredible yesterday - fantastic job!

Nicki - Glad you are going also!

Come back soon Ladies!

Kim