FREEDOM!

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. It's fun, it's festive and requires little-to-no stress. That is, if you are not hosting.

I rarely host the 4th of July. I am usually a big fat mooch and let someone else do all the planning(ahem...work). This year I decided to do things a little differently-- I invited my sister Jessica up to my neck of the woods.

People were coming over! Eeek!

The night before, I put on my apron and whipped up some of Grandma Selma's macaroni salad.(And by whipped up, I mean slaved over grating carrots, onions, green pepper and hard-boiled eggs til my wrists burned...and sustained a minor cut on my hand while chopping a run-away pepper).

Oh, but it was worth it. It was simply amazing.

When Jessica got here, we needed something to occupy the kiddos. And shopping for vintage necklaces on Etsy was not going to cut it...

So we busted out the slip n' slide and kiddy pool and strategically placed them under the Easy-Up so we did not have to mess with sunscreen.

Tacy and Em in their Liberty of London.

Ansley, Emily, Kate and Tacy in all their adorableness.

And here is my handsome chef.

I was so excited to get his shirt on sale for just $5 at American Eagle. Originally $15.50.

Fresh off the grill.

And how does one comfortably fit 8 kids + 4 adults into one kitchen?

We dragged our ingenious kiddy picnic table inside, which seats 8 kids!!! I don't know how I ever got along without it.

Seriously, it was a life saver.

After dinner, the daddies put on quite the concert. John on piano.

Steve on drums

And lots and lots of dancing by the kids.

After burning muchos calories dancing, we took the kids outside to play.

And of course Jess and I had to take some pictures of each other's families.

Our friendly neighborhood cat, Buddah, decided to join us.

Buddah cheerfully greets us almost every time we come outside.

For dessert, we decided to do rice krispy treats for the kids. Jess said that was good enough for the adults too, but I disagreed. It just was not American. I purchased some lovely macaroons and berry pie from Trader Joes.



So what happened to my "no treats" policy?

Well, I lasted about 7 months without any sugary goodies. It took about 1 or 2 months just to get the sugary cravings out of my system. The next few months I learned that sugar was not needed to have a good time.

Then, one day out of the blue, I decided to revisit my policy. Could I handle doing treats mainly just on special occasions?

So far it's going ok, though I think it's actually harder to do sugar in moderation than going cold turkey. I just have to be very careful.

After dessert, Uncle Steve put on a little fire works extravaganza.

The flash on my camera is just evil.

Thank you Lord for the freedoms we have in this blessed country!