Festa Americana

The Fourth of July is a fun and important holiday for a lot of people but not for the Italians, obviously.  I am used to doing something with my family usually involving kids, decorated bikes, golf carts, Lady Liberty and other crazy guests ending with fireworks and glow sticks.  For the past several years, my mother has hosted a bike parade at her beach house and all the nieces and nephews decorate their bikes.  The grown-ups all wear red, white, and blue.  There have been special appearances from Lady Liberty (my mom), Uncle Sam (my dad, my father in law, my brother), a Naval officer (my hubby), Elvis (my hubby), and Buzz Lightyear (my brother in law).  Before the parade can start, we all gather and wait anxiously to find out who the special guest will be!  After a day of parades (golf cart in the morning in my brother’s neighborhood, bike in afternoon at mom’s), playing on the beach, and grilling out, we all watch the fireworks.  It is a lot of fun and every year something new is added!

Fourth of July 2009

But I am missing it this year.  I have been able to Skype with lots of my family while they are all together and having a great time in South Carolina but I will not be able to Skype the parades and fireworks (well maybe the fireworks).  And being in a foreign country I thought we would not really get to do anything to celebrate but I was wrong.

Not the best picture but I didn't think Buzz or Uncle Sam from last year would appreciate a blog appearance!

Festa Americana was organized by the MWR (Morale, Welfare, & Recreation).  It was pretty much a two day party to celebrate the Fourth of July the weekend prior.  There was music, food, games, rides, a beer tent, and FIREWORKS! (seriously, there are fireworks almost every day in Italy).  The problem was it didn’t start until 5 PM each night.  We decided to go on Sunday night before a friend’s birthday dinner.  Matt had one thing in mind-the ball pit!! He wanted to put the baby in the ball pit and watch her play with all the gross and unclean balls.  And watch her put them in her mouth.  He knew it was possible that she would get her first cold from this experience but he was super excited about it (the ball pit not the cold!) 

BALLS!!

SHE LOVED IT!!  She liked playing in the ball pit with her daddy.  She liked putting the balls in her mouth and having her daddy push them all around her.  She held onto one ball in her left hand the whole time and kept putting the right hand ball in her mouth.  Matt would take the ball away when she put it in her mouth.  Of course she would pick up another one and repeat the process (still holding onto the one in her left hand).  Tips for all the other mommies whose husbands insist on the baby playing in the gross ball pit:  next time, we will clean off two balls and hope she holds onto them the whole time!

Loved climbing on the rope

After the ball pit, we still had 4 tickets to use.  Of course we are not going to ride the rollercoasters and such so we had to find a game to play.  For 4 tickets, Matt got 20 shots in one of the target games.  He hit 19/20 (the first shot his missed because the gun’s aim was slightly off).  I thought he would win a big prize for not missing but apparently these games reward cumulative scores more than accuracy! Matt was the first boy to win me a toy at a carnival!!  Of course I have to share it with the baby!!

The girls looking at the prize Matt won us!!

Overall we had fun at the Festa Americana!  And on the actual Fourth of July we had a wonderful dinner with friends!  It is definitely a new and different experience to celebrate a very American holiday in a foreign country!