holiday | Fourth of July 2011

Good Tuesday morning everyone!!
I hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekend...

I enjoyed celebrating with friends, family and neighbors...
I am so grateful for the beautiful country we live in...
and especially grateful for the men and women who sacrifice so much for our freedom.

Here are a few photos from the weekend:

little miss ella scarlet

A bouquet of festive Pastry Pedestals™ .
I drilled a hole in the bottom of plastic shot glasses, filled them with mini m&m candies,
placed a mini reese cup on top of the candies and covered them with a mini cupcake wrapper.
The paper lids were held in place by piercing a fabric tied toothpick
into the reese cup hidden beneath the wrapper.
(These were created for a BBQ we went to with friends on Saturday - thanks Cooley family - it was a blast)

Neighborhood 4th of July Breakfast
The morning of the 4th, Ella and I attended a neighborhood breakfast which included a "bike" parade
for anyone who wanted to participate. (I pulled Ella in her wagon).

There was also an activity for the kids that involved filling small baskets with birdseed and hanging them on a tree.

Another patriotic bouquet of  Pastry Pedestals™
I reused The Pastry Pedestals™ from Saturday's BBQ
and topped them off with mini blueberry muffins for the neighborhood breakfast.
(The acrylic rounds protect the decorative paper...making them reusable - LOVE that)!!!

4th of July Survival Kit

I'm looking forward to a great week ahead.
I've got some fantastic "real" parties to share with you - sent in by fans/readers.

Speaking of parties...
Did you see the brand-new social site launched by Hostess with Mostess?
It went live on Friday...
You MUST go check it out!
It's a labor of love Jenn and her husband have been working on for the past two years.
It's a party sharing/inspirational site built on a facebook-type platform!
Go join the community and receive weekly party mail!!


KEEPiNG iT REAL
I never got to use my survival kit.
With Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Wayne visiting all week...
Design deadlines...
and life...
I never got to finish it 100%.
Which worked out to my benefit anyway since we ended up skipping the fireworks show on Monday.
Saturday's BBQ ended with a fantastic fireworks display anyway - and honestly...
I had to sit in the car with Ella and watch with the windows rolled up because she was SO frightened by the noise.
By the end of it all, Clara and I had her convinced the fireworks were magic sparkles in the sky.
There was even lots of laughter and smiling from Ella when it was all said and done.
(But we still could not roll down the windows during the show). *wink*