4th of July in Shanghai!

4th of July seems like a tough holiday to 'get into the spirit' of overseas...away from America. However, this year we tried hard to help our girls understand a little bit about what makes America a special place and bring in bits of home.

Wendy has been memorizing some poetry in our homeschool time...so this week, instead of a poem, she memorized a piece of the Declaration of Independence...

And here are both girls doing the Pledge of Allegiance and singing the Star-Spangled Banner. Check out the 'special lyrics'...I could hardly control myself as Wendy sang 'Gave BIRTH through the night, that the flag was still there'. My favorite part isn't actually the wrong words... it's the confidence with which they are being sung!

We also had a picnic, during which there was a three minute cloudburst...always exciting around here. What I wouldn't have given for a nice picnic shelter! But it was over as quick as it had started and we were back out to do sparklers. I left my memory stick at home so missed a lot of good photos. But here are a few of the girls doing sparklers after our little rainstorm!