Last year we started a little tradition to have a 4th of July breakfast in the backyard for our family. I was tempted to not bother this year, but I thought of my sister-in-law Debbie and had to do it. It's easy to make traditions happen when more family/friends are around, when invitations have been extended, etc. But when there's no accountability to anyone else but your own children who will inevitably be too young to probably even remember it's easy to skip opportunities for the magic moments. Debbie would have made the breakfast happen whether it was for Ty, Bre, and Buddy or if it was the whole extended family. So, in her honor I put out the 4th of July placemats she gave me several years ago, made little red, white, and blue yogurt parfaits and toasties and had a very simple 4th of July Breakfast with the family. Amy & Ian made sure they were wearing their 4th of July hats (by their own desire). We sang "America the Beautiful", enjoying a blustery and not-so-yummy breakfast outside (kinda hard to mess up yogurt parfaits but I learned that the Dannon or Yoplait vanilla yogurt is the only way to go - some of the other stuff is gross). We'll finish up the celebrations with fireworks. Happy 4th of July!
