Showing posts with label 4th of July. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 4th of July. Show all posts

Monday, July 16, 2012

4th of July...... and why we'll have to settle for non-picture Christmas cards this year!

Here are two family pictures we took while we were up north for the week.  It's pretty obvious that getting a two year old, a two month old, and two parents to look at the camera at the same time while not blinking, glaring at the camera, or looking utterly ridiculous is impossible. I'm already dreading pictures for the Christmas card!


Spencer absolutely loved the parade.  He clapped and smiled through the whole thing. It was hotter than hot (90+). Luckily we had a spot in the shade which helped a tiny bit. We went home right afterwards and Spencer fell asleep while walking back to the car and slept for 2.5 hours! We didn't go out to watch the fireworks as we were tired and needed to get things organized for our party the next night; however, we ended up being able to see the Harbor Spring's fireworks from my mom's house.  What a wonderful and unexpected surprise!

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Party time!

On the 5th of July, B and I hosted a party at my mom and Ralph's new house for our Bay View friends. It was 90 degrees and their air conditioning had broke that week (uggggg), so it was a scorcher of a party, but we had fun anyway. We made all the food and drinks the evening of the 3rd and the morning of the 4th.  I took some pictures, but I'll give you a full run down of the menu below.
Saw this idea on pinterest and just had to do it.  So cute!  We had a few left at the end of the night and they were the perfect clean up snack. You really could use any cookie cutter to make the shapes on the skewers for any theme. I would have to recommend making the slices as thin as possible so that the cookie cutter goes all the way through. My slices were a little thick, so I often had to trace the cookie cutter with the knife in order to get all the way through to the other side.

Close up of the watermelon stars.

Chicken skewers with peanut sauce.  The skewers had poultry seasoning, soy and terriyaki sauce, and garlic on them prior to being grilled.  B found a peanut sauce recipe online that include peanut butter, sugar, water, soy sauce, and garlic. I don't like peanut sauce, but everyone else raved about this.  It was really easy to make too!

Veggie tray with hummus and pesto cream cheese dip.

This is one of my very favorite summer recipes.  It's fruit salsa with homemade cinnamon chips. If you are ever going to a party and need to bring something, this is always my first recommendation.  Everyone loves it! It's also really good left over the next morning over pancakes or the next evening over ice cream :)

Annie's cherry and goat cheese bruschetta is definitely worth trying.  It's delish and unexpected! This picture is terrible, sorry!

We also had grilled pork tenderloin sliders with a homemade peach compote, lemon curd with berries, brownies, and regular tomato bruschetta for the food table. We served beer, wine, skippers (ie: skip and go nakeds- limeade, clear rum, and beer), and Pimm's cup at the bar.
A picture of all the girls later in the evening once the sun had gone down. I look HORRID here (note to self: don't let people pull you to the center of the picture and stand face forward when EVERYONE else is on an angle- not a good look!), but I'm glad I have the memory!!

We were really excited to celebrate a great week with our friends and enjoyed having a chance to catch up sans kiddos!!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Vacation!!

Ahhhhhh......there is NOTHING like a good vacation to get your heart, body, and mind where they need to be.  While rest wasn't on the top of my priority list, not having an absolute set schedule for 10 days straight was a form of rest for me.  You want to know what is also restful?  Full loads of laundry with all stains gone, completely folded, and placed on our bed all of which was done by my wonderful mother!!  She is an amazing person and SO great with "baby Spencert" (yes with a T)(that's what our neighbor's little boy calls him!!).  She just kept trying to force B and I out of the house with just each other so that she could steal our little guy for a few hours.  She is never impatient with him (even when he is being naughty) and she couldn't love him more!

Warning, the next two days of posts are going to be picture overload, so feel free to ignore them if you could care less about our little family vacay!!

The first day we were there, it was warm but slightly overcast.  Not really what we would consider a "beach day".  My aunt and uncle bought a new boat this spring, so we were able to go out on it Sat afternoon.  It was SYT's first boat ride and he seemed to love it!  I was a little nervous as I can get a little queasy on boats at times and I wondered if he would have the same issue.  He didn't seem to have one bit of trouble, thank goodness.  The last thing I wanted was baby puke all over the nice white leather seats!!



(The sun finally came out!)

Spencer and my mom- "Mimi"

Gorgeous boats on the bay



Saturday night my mom and Ralph watched SYT so that we were able to go to dinner with friends.  It was a great first night as we were able to catch up with everyone.




After dinner we were all able to stay out a little longer and have drinks at a new place downtown.  They have a great outdoor roof deck, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. 

After Saturday afternoon, we didn't have one even remotely bad day of weather while we were there.  It was simply gorgeous!  Sunday, and most days thereafter, we spent part of the afternoon (either before or after SYT's nap) at the beach with our friends and their children.  Spence loved the baby pool, the lake, and the sand.  He occasionally got a little testy when another child was playing with a toy he wanted, so I would have to intervene a bit.  Sharing will take awhile, I think!!

Sunday night we went to Vespers with my Grandmother.  The theme was patriotic music (being on July 3rd and all), and it was perfect.  I feel so lucky that B is willing to attend things like this with me.  Most of the members that go to Vespers are, on average, between 50 and 70 years old, but I adore the weekly Sunday night concerts and went almost every Sunday with my Gram even when I was 17, 18, 19, etc.  After the concert we went to a party at SSK's parents cottage.  It was so much fun!!  A few cocktails later, B and I called it a night and headed home to prepare for my favorite day of the year!!

 A few shots of the kiddos at the Harbor Springs Parade.  Spence loved the parade.  He was clapping every time a band or a float with music went by, and he would wave and wave at all the cars.
 




A friend of mine monogrammed his outfit and it turned out to be cuter than I could have hoped for.  He had on little blue sandles with stars on them too. 

B and I did the Paul Revere Run the morning of the 4th (B pushed SYT in the stroller so that he would have a slow enough pace for me to run with him!) and spent the time before the parade exploring the art show.  We had a family dinner at my Gram's that night and watched a few fireworks but were so exhausted, we didn't end up seeing most of them.  The first big fireworks didn't start going off until after 10:30.  With a little one who gets up between 6 and 6:30, numerous late nights in a row make for a tired mommy and daddy!! 

More pics (and the rest of the week) to come.....



Monday, July 4, 2011

Happy 4th of July week!

(via Country Living)

Wouldn't you just love to live in this house?  I adore houses with porches and I love the way this is all decked out for the holiday!!  Can't you just imagine it on Main Street, USA?  L-O-V-E!!

Monday, July 12, 2010

4th of July Fun


The 4th was desperately hot up north, but still worth the trip.  A few of my favorite pics are below!
Love the Americana feel to this one!


At the Harbor Springs Art Show

Trying to find a picture for above our mantel.  My favorite cost over $1000, so it's on the wish list for now!


I adore hostas!

The parade begins

The bagpipers.  They must have been DYING of heat!
The kids love all the bands in the parade (almost as much as the candy!)

Old timey cars (there are always tons of them)

Our friends kids and BYT holding SYT and trying to keep him shaded by the burp cloth.


Mommy and SYT in the shade.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Holiday Weekend

How was your weekend? Did you have a great time celebrating our country's Independence and freedom? I can't wait to read all about it today!

While normally we spend the 4th of July up north, this year we left Friday morning to go to one of B's HS friend's wedding in B and A's hometown. We arrived about noon and took B's grandmother to lunch at her favorite Mexican restaurant. After lunch we went back to her place to show her all the Spain pictures. We then went to get ready for the ceremony and reception. We dolled up in red, white, and blue since it was the 3rd. We received quite a few compliments!

The only pic of us together- B had a navy blazer on earlier


A and S are super fun and quite unconventional. They had a tableful of costumes for the photo booth, and as evidenced by the next picture, they were utilized well! They also came out in white track suits and performed a choreographed dance for everyone! While I thought she was crazy for changing out of the gorgeous sheath dress she wore, the dance was hysterical and well done!





On Saturday morning we got up, ran (I did 3.3, B did 9), watched Serena and Venus (I was happy with the outcome!), and then went to the Jamie Farr Owen's Corning Classic LPGA event. We got there, watched a few pairs tee off, ate lunch in the tent, and then followed a few of the leaders around the course. After walking the first 9, we went to the 18th green skybox to watch everyone come in. A South Korean named Yi ended up shooting a 61 on Saturday!!!!!!!!!! She went 10 under- amazing. Morgan Pressel ended up tying her on Sunday which led to a one hole tiebreaker where Yi was crowned the winner. Morgan played really well on Saturday as well. We watched her quite a bit as well as Michelle Wi (did you know she is 6 feet tall in real life??), Suzann Pettersen, and Natalie Gulbis. Unfortunately, Paula Creamer had injured her thumb and did play. I was bummed b/c she is definitely one of my favorites!! B was fine with watching Natalie (specifically her smile and her legs!) all day :)
Eunjung Yi wins

Natalie on Saturday

Morgan Pressel


Saturday night we went to a party at the Groom's parents house. It was fun to hang out with all of B's HS friends again and spend more time catching up. We were exhausted by about 11 and headed home. Sunday morning we had breakfast with his grandma and then got on the road to get back home to Junie B and to do the standard weekend chores (laundry, grocery shopping, etc). While I missed being up north with my friends and family, the wedding was fun, and I do enjoy hanging out with B's friends. All in all- good weekend!!