Independence Day

Happy Day of Dragging after the long holiday weekend!

That pretty much tells what things are like around these parts.

Oh that and today is July 7, which means it’s the day after July 6. And that isn’t a typo, because our weekend didn’t really get good until Sunday and that’s how I’m choosing to remember this Independence Day weekend.

First things first…dessert.

This is what I decided to do this year and it was so wonderfully easy. I bought a box of ice-cream sandwiches and dipped them in red, white, and blue sprinkles. Voila!!!

Now on to other issues.

I decided to take the Three Amigos shopping on the 4th of July. They needed summer clothes and I needed retail therapy. Ya’ll it was rough. I can’t even begin to speak favorably of that experience. Gone are the days of cute matching outfits and stylishly classic separates made by a certain clothing designer with polo players as his logo.

We are now about wearing winter beanies in the summer, drop crotch pants, and arguing with any suggestion that someone by the name of “Mom” will make.

And there’s the one child who absolutely hates trying clothes on in a store. And once she does, it’s either everything fits (when it doesn’t) or nothing works (when they do).

The whole experience made we want to declare my independence from motherhood. So I’m now working on alternatives to shopping with three tweens/ tweens. And let me tell you, because we will be on vacation with my parents next month, there were certain things I felt they absolutely had to get. Because as we all know, they need to represent our family appropriately and when it comes down to it, I’d rather just deal with their attitudes before I have to hear parenting judgments from my elders.

So it was rough. Very rough. For me and for them.

But there was also watermelon. And we all know that watermelon makes the world a better place.

But in a quite funny turn of events, there were two little worms. And that brought great humor as all three of attitudinal children who wear winter beanies in the summer, were now terrified of live worms they discovered while shucking corn on Saturday.

And I realize that we live in the city (well, suburbs), but we embrace some aspects of county living. And shucking corn is one of them. And that’s what we call it. To use some official term related to corn husks just isn’t right.

By then we made it to Sunday, July 6! The kids donned some of their new gear and we headed to the annual church anniversary celebration for one of our churches. Yes, you read that correctly but that’s a post for another day.

We danced.

And played sports.

And took selfies.

And had our first snow cones of the summer. I would tell you how many we actually had, but a certain 11-year-old in my house says that I don’t need to blog about everything. So we’ll save that for another day.

And the best part of it all, FIREWORKS!

And we had a fabulous July 6th!

How was your Independence Day weekend?

Hi friends!

Thanks so much for supporting my cancerversary last month. That whole cancer experience was very weird, and celebrating my survivor status in June helps me cope with all of that. So, for many of you who read those posts last year when I was actually going through the cancer experience, I know it was a bit repetitive, but it was therapeutic for me to dedicate a whole month of blog posts to it.

So, tell me, how was your June? School did not end for us until June 13, so we really just got back in the swing of summer in the past week or so. We’ve pretty much been hanging out and relaxing…I’ve actually been trying to get them to understand that you don’t always have to go somewhere or do something to have a good time. So far, they’re not buying it.

In honor of the 4th of July this week, I thought I’d post a few pictures of my favorite 4th of July desserts. I love dessert…especially on the 4th of July, and these are two of the recipes I have tried in recent years.

This is a simple yellow cake that I made and used blueberries and strawberries for the stars and stripes. We happened to have extra peppermint candies lying around so the kids and I decided to add those on the cake as well.

Last year, I decided that I really wanted to make a trifle. Except I don’t really like pudding much. So I altered the recipe and instead of pudding I used whipped cream. And then I used colored frosting and flags to give it that Independence Day oomph!

This year, I bought 4th of July sprinkles and I’ve been scouring through Pinterest to find a recipe. I’ll definitely let you know what I decide and if you have any ideas, please share them!

Have a great holiday weekend!