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My country 'tis of thee,
How sweet is this child I see.
Of thee I sing.
(I snapped this shot in between her sessions of using the flag as a whacking stick. If she were my direct offspring, I would snatch the flag away. But instead, I let her hit everyone in sight while I thought, "oh, she's sweet.")

This is the neighbor's yard and their flag that they paid for. We didn't even put one out. How American is that?
We had friends over last night for dinner and rambunctious fireworks. Tonight was a more low-key fire spectacle with the twins. At one point, a firework fell over mid-eruption and shot flaming sparks everywhere. The kids screamed and Addie's leg was singed. She immediately burst out, "I got shot!!" Tears gushed everywhere--Addie, because she was actually crying, and the other adults, because we were laughing so hard we started to sweat out our eyes. A good, American night.

Happy 4th of July. We declare our independence from all that is normal, calm and quiet. Let freedom ring.