July 4th celebration at church

After Christmas, my church's July 4th celebration is my favorite service. My parents offered to take me this year (couldn't afford to refuel my car) so I happily accepted. I wore my America flag tee from Kohl's, Lorene wore her Old Navy flag tee, PJ didn't have one that still fit but wore a blue and white striped polo - close enough!

The service was excellent, as usual. A local color guard presented the flag. Both kids were mesmerized by the marching soldiers. We then said the pledge of allegiance and sang the national anthem. Scenic pictures of America flashed on the overhead screens - Lorene kept pointing and exclaiming over them. Then we were seated and sat back to listen to the choir, the orchestra ensemble and the handbell choir perform patriotic anthems - including My Country Tis of Thee, God Bless America, America the Beautiful and When Johnny Comes Marching Home (PJ especially enjoyed this one). As always, my favorite part was the salute to the armed forces. The orchestra and choir performed the official song for each branch of the armed services and every one who had served (or would serve - we have a few recruits in the congregation) would go forward and we would clap. I was surprised that the Navy had the largest number of women who had served.

A country song about letters from home was then sung while the overhead screens projected pictures of the sons (no daughters) of church members who were currently serving. Next was a audio clip of the words of our founding fathers. At this point Lorene was restless having lost interest in the overhead screens and having scribbled on all the available scrap paper. I took her to walk the halls (along with about a dozen toddlers and their parents) while the congregation sang "God Bless the USA". We returned in time to see the color guard remove the flag and to hear the ensemble play a very rousing "Stars and Stripes Forever".

Afterwards we had vanilla cake and chocolate ice cream and lemonade in the fellowship hall. PJ was happy because each piece of cake had a sparkly star stuck into it. Unfortunately he lost his in Papa's car on the way home.