4th of July

We had a fantastic 4th of July this year, celebrating with my family and enjoying the fact that fireworks are now legal in Arizona. Not sure that will last, but we had lots of fun with it!

I spent most of the morning trying to make beautiful cupcakes...it was definitely an epic fail. I made marshmallow fondant that I was going to use to cut out cute shapes to decorate said cupcakes. I don't know if I made the fondant wrong, or if it just wasn't meant to be used that way, but it didn't work. After much effort, I found that it wouldn't hold the shapes and ended up just looking blobby. So, I made red, white and blue frosting and pulled out the sprinkles. Of course, as soon as I turned my back, Eddie climbed up on the table and stuck his finger in about 7 of the cupcakes. Oh well, they tasted good! I also attempted home made ice cream for the first time and that was much more successful.

After much swimming and some amazing dutch oven ribs, the kids put on a parade. Emily made it easy for me, she just wanted to be a princess. So I tied Eddie's blanket around his neck and called him her prince.



We also enjoyed some carnival games. Emily loved the ducky races and continued them in her bath this morning. She assured me that I could borrow her pirate ducky and her squirt gun if I want to have a ducky race during my bath.







As it was starting to get dark, the kids played with glow sticks until it was time for the fireworks to begin!



Amazingly, both kids stayed outside through all the fireworks. Eddie needed his blankie and Grandpa to protect him and Emily covered her ears through the loud ones, but they both watched them all!

It was a great time, but I must admit that one of my favorite parts was the fact that it made the kids so tired that they slept until almost 7 this morning. I think that was a record.