Happy 4th!

Happy Independence Day! We are enjoying a perfect day - temps in the mid-70's with a gentle breeze. We've been on walks, had our barbeque, and this fantastic patriotic cake. (Go here for directions. It was fun to make!) Now the girls are waiting for dusk to light up some sparklers and little fountain fireworks.

At dinner we talked about the stars and stripes, using this story from an LDS Living Family Home Evening lesson:

A new nation needed a new banner. So "The Makers of the Flag" chose red and white stripes. But, instead of using a cross that represented countries across the sea, they chose stars to be the emblems of a new country.

"We take the stars from heaven," declared George Washington, "the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing liberty."

A grouping of glorious white stars in a flag was a new design, and, as Washington said, they took the stars from heaven. Stars have always been the emblems of high thoughts and high ideals. Very beautiful are the stars in the dark blue sky, glowing with their calm and steady light.

It was these wonderful blue-white stars that gave the fathers of our country a pattern for the flag.

And that is how the flag was made,
And how it came to be,
The stars and glorious stripes arrayed
To wave on land and sea.

All of us should remember that one who loves the flag will always honor the law, whether the law of his home, his church, his town, or his state. He will be loyal and "true blue."

Your flag and my flag -
And how it flies today
In your land and my land
And half a world away.

(A Story to Tell, [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2004], p. 366.)