Happy Fourth of July!

I LOVE the Fourth of July!  

It's is one of my most favorite holidays.  I have very happy memories growing up of pool parties, BBQ's and being with my family and friends.  Usually my parents would be working on some big project around the house and the radio would be on KRTH playing the Firecracker 400 countdown.

{Image from Country Living}

Have you ever mixed grape juice with lemonade before? 

 That was a treat we drank at our friends home every year and OH it is GOOD on a hot summer day after swimming!

I am sad that this year will be really low key.   Usually we try to make it up to Midway, but we have all had strep throat again one after another and I am just not up to putting on a party.  I"ll just have to make up for it next year, right!?  Meanwhile I am using Lysol like crazy and cleaning the house!

I hope you have a wonderful and safe holiday!  I am so proud to be an American and live in this beautiful country of ours! 

 GOD BLESS AMERICA!!

I'll leave you with a favorite summer dessert - S'mores Bars!  Easy to take along to any party, they are best if you make them the night before or early in the day before serving.  I cut them into smaller pieces since they are delish, but very rich!

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten 
• 2 cups marshmallow topping (such as Marshmallow Fluff)
• 2 cups milk-chocolate chips (I use 3/4 bag milk chocolate and 1 cup semi sweet) 

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang on 2 sides. Mist foil with cooking spray.
2.  In a bowl, combine flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt; mix well. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until light, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs until well combined. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly beat flour mixture into butter mixture. Divide dough in half. Press half of dough into pan until dough is uniform and flat. Spread with marshmallow topping and sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Scatter remaining dough over in clumps. Don't worry about covering the top; marshmallow and chocolate chips should peek through.
3.  Bake until golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. Place pan on a wire rack to cool completely. Remove from pan, peel off foil and cut into bars.

{Linking up to Honey We're Home}

Wishing you...

A very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year to you and your families!  

We are busy wrapping, baking and giggling...I am cherishing this time with my sweet family and hope you are able to do the same! 

Santa Baby

I've been MIA for awhile I know. I don't really feel like I had anything to say. Or anything I did have to say would be negative or sad. And I don't want to project that "out there." I've been really hard on myself the past few weeks and I need to make a few changes in my life. One involves a total gutting of the junk in my home - that is well underway and I am already feeling better and a lot happier. Baby steps and positive thinking - right?!

I took my three littles to see Santa a few weeks ago. We like to see Santa early to beat the Christmas rush and get lists to him so he doesn't have to shop last minute for us. ;) My friend Emilie of Photos by Emilie takes them and it is a GLORIOUS experience. I take the kids to her studio that is all decorated for Christmas - the kids meet with Santa and it is stress FREE for moi. Love love love.

Here is the proof of Santa cuteness....

Christmas Card Love

Y'all....I am a nervous wreck to go tomorrow to see how my family pictures turned out.  So nervous I'm using the word y'all when I should really be true to my school by saying things like: totally, rad, like, and fer sure. 

We'll see how they turn out.  If I don't like how I look I'll just use pictures of the kids.  Easy.

In the meantime, I've been looking at my friend Nat's Etsy shop Natty Sue Designs for Christmas card ideas.  She designs the CUTEST cards!  Seriously, she is one talented girl.  I love yelling at her over the fence and telling her "I need a card for Graham....read my mind and make it awesome."  

And she DOES IT - every.single.time!

I'm thinking I need to have a party just to use this card....

 

 SO CUTE!!

And I am loving this Christmas card....

Here is the miracle she whipped up for me in about 20 seconds last year....

 This year I am thinking of using this one....

 (Are those kids CUTE or what???!!!!  If my kids made ugly faces in the family pictures I just might use this picture and pretend this is what Graham Greg and LuLu are looking like these days.)

Or maybe this one?

and this one is pretty fun too....

I'll let you know how it goes!!!  Wish me luck and here's to photo shop for making me look thinner!

Don't pretend you don't do that....you know you've at least THOUGHT about it!!!! :)

TRICK or TREAT!

 Preschool parade

 Elementary school parade

 Trunk or Treat at church

 LuLu and her happy pumpkin

 Some serious carving going on here!

 Cute Grahamer

 Me trying

 to get

 at least one good shot???? I give up.

Cute LuLu with her loot!

Hope you all had a fun Halloween!

Gardner Village for Halloween

 I had a few errands to run and I still wanted to do something fun with the kids so I took them to Gardner Village to see the witches!

 They loved looking around and seeing what all the crazy those witches were causing!

 "Make a scary face!"

 This was Lauren pretty much the whole, entire time.

 The boys thought this was hilarious of course.

 I took them into Sweet Afton's for a little treat....

to tide us over....

 until we got the the bakery for a pumpkin cookie.

 Eating these is serious business!

All was well until the sugar kicked in and then this happened: 

SPLAT.  

My kids went CRAZY of their own.

 Graham on sugar is like a someone fed him speed. 

 Blurry pictures because he can't stop moving!  Then, Greg follows his big brother's awesome example!

 STOP!!!  STOP IT!!!!  NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!

 We made it outside without anyone breaking anything (success!)

 And Graham gave us all a very educational speech on how waterwheels work and what they are for.

 It was a very nice way to spend a fall afternoon.  I'll just do the cookies LAST next time!

Not to worry anyone, but I've had a few medical scares over the past few months.  Tomorrow I am heading downtown for a big ta-do type of test (not looking forward to the IV, yuck!)  

Dan took the day off to be with the kids while I go get this taken care of and hopefully everything will be okay.  But if you feel like sending some positive thoughts my way I would sure appreciate it!! 

Easter Weekend

 We buried jelly beans in hopes of growing a jelly bean tree....

 Lauren was very serious about this!

 I was shocked to see not jelly bean trees but lollipops had grown in their places instead!  Amazing!

 The kids thought this was magical!

 I tried to get a good picture...no one was cooperating and we were in a hurry to get to church on time.

 So much so that LuLu had the wrong shoes and sweater on - sigh.

 Let's try really quick outside...better?

 Nope. Greg always closes his eyes, Graham was a stiff soldier and LuLu wouldn't stop bouncing around!

 The yummy raspberry cake with buttercream frosting and raspberry sauce.   
The menu included honey baked ham, creamy asparagus, glazed carrots, baked potatoes, black cherry jello, Kj's yummy homemade rolls, veggies and dip, and strawberry poppyseed salad.
MMMMM!!!

 Ready for dinner - we had our friends The Troxel's over with their 3 boys...

 Neil wouldn't take a picture either!

Gorgeous Danielle!

 Dan, the chief ham cooker and slicer!

Kids table.

We had a nice Easter Sunday and were grateful to spend it with friends who are like family!