July 4th!

We celebrated July 4th with friends, family, baseball, Shake Shack, ice cream, and fire works all while dressed in red, white, and blue. All things that are super American to me. 

A friend from when we first moved here, has started hosting a "small town" July 4th celebration in our bity city for everyone who wants to attend. They did an amazing job! It was our first time going, and it is now a must for us when we celebrate the 4th in NYC. The kids did a parade riding on their scooters decorated for the 4th. They brought candy for all the moms to pass out to the kids. Then the kids and dads had a really fun water gun and water balloon fight. So funny to see Lyndon get into it with the kids. Rapha was especially cute, running around with a big grin, laughing anytime he got Lyndon. Henry was all about getting Pa. That's right! My dad and little bro joined us for the weekend!

Pa had to run for it!





Henry is the cutest! He waved to me every single time he saw me. 

This guy's smile kills me every time. He had such a great time. 

Waiting for the mom's surprise for the kids. 

They loved it!



Oh Rapha! I love you so much! 
Get'em girl!

And we left with all the balloons I could carry. By the time we were ready to leave the park, there were none. 

Baseball: America's pastime and now the Plothow's. 

His lips and face as the balloon numbers began to dwindle. 

When the possibility of them coming up for the 4th came up, I asked the kids their opinion. It was unanimous that Pa and Uncle David come. Rapha told them they should fly, because it is way faster, lol. It was fun to have them here. The kids love them a lot. Their last night here, I heard Coco and Henry screaming in their room, like they were playing or something. When I went to check on them, it was Uncle David "scaring them", lol. I let the fun continue. Back to the 4th.....

Lyndon has been wanting to play baseball with the kids for a while. He bought two bats, lots of balls, and we had a family baseball game in Central Park. Turns out the kids are quite the sluggers. They have played baseball everyday since. I asked Henry if he wanted to play for the Yankees, but he said his team is the Atlanta Braves Turns out he has been listening to a Magic Tree House book all about the Braves. Looks like baseball will be our family sport for a while. 


We ended the day with watching fireworks at Lyndon's office. We had views over the Hudson River at New Jersey. We could see every fire work show going on over there. It was pretty cool to see all the different places that were having them. Then we changed locations for the big firework show New Jersey does. It especially spectacular, because they were right above the Statue of Liberty. How perfect is that? We also caught a partial view of the Macy's firework show over the Brooklyn Bridge. And when we looked to our left we had a straight shot of the Empire State Building all lit up in red, white, and blue. Freaking amazing!

Typing all this makes me realize how amazing that day was. This was the best 4th we have had in a long time. There is a lot going on in our country politically right now that makes me feel a lot of different feelings. However, we are still the most free nation in the world. That is pretty incredible. I am grateful for that. Happy July 4th!  Feeling proud to be an American.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Traveling Half Way around the World

Image
We made it to Manila! We flew over the US and the Pacific Ocean to get here. Our total travel time was 55 hours. It was long but surprisingly not bad at all. Cosette was an angel and the Haneda Airport in Tokyo was like a hotel. If those two things had been any different attitude in writing would not be so positive. This odessy of a journey begun way before our first flight. Packing up our apartment for our subletters took a lot longer than we supposed it would. So instead of being refreshed and ready for the long trip over we were tried and I did not want to get out of bed. We got enough sleep to keep on going till our flight from NYC to San Fransicso where we tried to rest. That flight for me was the worst. Cosette did sleep but was up for a lot of it. The plane was cramped and Lyndon and I were seperated by the aile. Thankgoodness for kind and patient people who sat next to us. Playing at the San Fransico airport.   Our flight to Japan was awesome. We had a
Read more

Remote Learning Part 1

Image
Remote learning is over for now, thank goodness. We have been doing remote learning since March 20. We are experts at google classroom, zoom meetings, and google meets. It's been rough, but we did it!  This post is long and detailed about what each kid had to do everyday for school. It was intense. The kids did wonderfully. Their teachers are amazing! They worked around the clock to learn all the new technology, meeting with students individually. I received personal phone calls from them asking what they could do to help and also talking to my kids. I am so grateful for the teachers they had this year.  All three kids participated in remote learning. Each grade/teacher did something different. What they all had to do was answer and attendance question by noon, read for thirty minutes a day, and I-ready (an assessment program that helped determine where they were in math and reading).  Third Grade: Cosette's assignments were what she was doing in school. She completed two huge
Read more

Valentine's Day

Image
Happy Valentine's Day! This has become one of my favorite holidays in the last few years. This year especially I am really into it. It probably has to do with my sweet Lyndon who proposed to me on V-Day four years ago. Since then he has made Valentine's Day a fun and special day. He always surprises me with something fun. Usually we go eat some where fabulous and go see a ballet or opera. He likes to do something cultural on this speical day. This year I am getting into the spirit more. Cosette can do a lot more things. We made special Valentine's for our families and made yummy cookies. She kept sneaking cookie dough and eating it. She is my daughter.  The finished product waiting for Lyndon. I went to the Cake Boss Bakery last year to get Lyndon something for V-day and was inspired to make the dark chocolate bowls filled with chocolate covered strawberries. It was a lot easier that I anticipated. Oh, and that cloth on the table are the pajama pants
Read more