a belated 4th of July post!

Geez....it feels like I've been gone forever! I have really missed blogging and I'm so excited to be back! It's so funny how something as small as a blog can brighten your day!

I finally got to sit down this evening and upload photos from our 4th of July celebration. I thought I had taken a lot more but I guess my mind was elsewhere and only a little more than a handful where taken. However, I really liked the ones I got!

My mother.in.law, sister.in.law and brother.in.law all came over to our old place around 3:00 and I was busy in the kitchen. I decided that I'd make the hot dogs that I mentioned on this post and they tasted awesome! The sauce got all soaked into the bun and let me just tell you....YUM-O! I'm for sure going to make those again!

I also decided to try out the drink I mentioned here as well. I went to the grocery store and purchased all the ingredients and tried it out when I got home. The trick to the colors staying separated is how much sugar each have. The one with the most sugar sinks to the bottom and the one with the least floats to the top. When I first tried it the colors kept mixing for some reason although it tasted really good! The next morning, I decided to purchase a darker shade of blue Gatorade to see if that would help and I was pleasantly surprised that it did! Here's a photo of the one I made myself at dinner. The blue doesn't show well in the picture but it was so pretty in person!




My sister.in.law (Hi Kathleen!) made a delicious strawberry feta salad which I specifically requested! This salad is fabulous! The colors are so pretty and the dressing is so yummy! I'll have to get the recipe from her and post it here because I just know you'd love it too!



I feel like I'm repeating myself, but I also decided to make the fruit salad that I mentioned on the same post as the previous food items. It was so light and refreshing! I think this salad would make a nice salad for an evening BBQ any day of the week too!



For dessert, I made the patriotic strawberries and the star sugar cookies and they turned out so pretty and so yummy! I think I'll make the strawberries in different colors for other holidays too! Pardon the picture of the cookies, my kitchen was so jammed with dishes and food that I didn't have space to set up a pretty photo shoot for them!





And finally I made the patriotic ice pops! These were so much fun to make! I used the same ingredients as I did for the drink at the top except I didn't used 7UP but lemonade. I would suggest that all you mommies out there make these for your kiddos! They were a complete hit with Evan!





After dinner, we headed out to watch the fireworks in Santa Clara's Central Park. My oh my what a traffic jam that was! We drove around for a bit before deciding to crash at my sister's place and watch them from her driveway! It was so cool because all these people were driving around trying to find a parking place and we got to park right in her driveway. My sister and her hubby weren't home and decided to celebrate with her in.laws. She doesn't know what a great fireworks show is right outside her door! It was spectacular! The grand finale was the best I have ever seen, seriously. It lasted so long and was so loud. It was cute because Evan turned into my shoulder to hide from the noise!

After that we headed over to my mother.in.laws house to drop Evan off for the night. Marsha was going to watch him for us while the movers where at our place in the morning. That was such a huge help and he was able to still get enough attention and playtime with grandma! Once we got home from her house, it was time to get things ready for the move the next day. This was an emotional night for me. Ben left for a bit to get his tool box at the new place and while he was away I took the opportunity to sit alone inside Evan's room and take it all in for the last time. I reminisced about when my dad, sister and I put it together before Evan was born and of all the fun times we've shared in there since then. I cried...a lot...but it was sweet. Now I'm getting myself all upset so I'm going to stop there. haha!

So that was our 4th of July 2010! It was a bittersweet time as we spent our last evening in our old home and it was nice to have family there with us. I look forward to future 4th of July celebrations in our new home where we'll of course create new memories for me to cry about when we move on from here. Life is hard....hahaha!!!