4th of July Festivities

This 4th of July I decided to really get in the spirit. And by that I mean, I decided to make a holiday treat. I think I will make it a tradition too.

This was my first attempt at making a cheesecake. I remember my roommate DeAnne making a cheesecake and all the work that went into it. We photographed every angle of that cheesecake. It was delicious. So I decided to try my hand at it this year. I found this great recipe called Firecracker cheesecake. It has a layer of blueberry flavored cheesecake in the middle and I swirled it on top too. It took 3 hours to cook!!! I couldn't believe how long it takes to bake one of these! But man was it worth it. It was SO good! I also, photographed every angle. But, don't look too close to the nutrition facts. This really can only be a once a year treat. 384 calories and 31 grams of fat per serving!!!


This was Colson's first 4th of July so I wanted to do something special for him and the kids. So I saw a tutorial on Make it and Love it for these flag shirts. They turned out so cute! I only had a red onesie for Colson, but I think it turned out good. I was going to sew 5 buttons on the star part, but it just turned into too much work. So I thought one would do.

We spent the day with Nicholas, Christina and their kids. It was so much fun! We went to my sisters house. She has an indoor pool, and we swam all day! They kids had a great time and the adults did too. Daniel and Nicholas were pretty funny. They kept having races. Daniel got stuck in Parkers floaty ring trying to dive into it, and popped it.

We came home to our apartments and wheeled the grill out by the playground and picnic tables. We set up a blanket and had a little barbeque. It was so nice. The weather was perfect, the kids played, we talked and played games. It was just perfect. Brenton wasn't into the cheesecake so much. But boy did he like the berries. I had a bowl of extra berries out on the table and he loved it. He sat next to the bowl and ate and ate. It was cute.

Here's Parker showing off his new t shirt. It's a little big, but they were the smallest I could find. I can't believe how old he looks in this picture. He's growing up so fast. And Daniel and Colson relaxing in the shade.

Here's Colson and lady liberty. We got Parker a hat too, but he didn't want to wear it much. Do you like how you can see Parker in the corner having a time out? Silly boy.

After the barbecue we changed into our jammies, pulled our camp chairs out to the lawn, wrapped up in a blanket and watched the fireworks. They kids thought it was great. After all our neighbors fired all their fireworks off, we went inside and watched the firework show in DC on tv. We talked about how blessed we are to live in America where we can go to school and worship as we please. Ava seemed to understand how important it was when we explained that not everyone has the things we do. It truly is a blessing to be American!

The kids didn't get to bed until 11!! I don't think they've ever stayed up that late. But they slept in till 8:30 which was awesome!

Happy Birthday America!!