Monday, July 9, 2018

Fourth of July 2018

*This post may contain affiliate links, which means at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through or make a purchase.

Happy Monday, y’all!  We reeeeally packed it in this past week!  I had every intention of recapping our entire week in today’s post, but I ended up recapping just our 4th of July.  I did this for two reasons – a) the post would have been crazy long so I decided it might be better to split it up, and b) honestly?  Because we were enjoying our Sunday too much and I just didn’t feel like sitting at the computer for hours trying to get the whole thing done.  So, that means today you’ll get a little peek at our Fourth of July and then tomorrow or Wednesday I’ll recap the rest of last week.  Sound good?  Okay!

Our Fourth started out with homemade red, white, and blue confetti waffles!  The kids request homemade waffles pretty much every single morning, but I try to limit us to eating them only on weekends and special holidays.  They were soooo excited to get to have some extra festive ones that morning!  And if you would like my festive recipe, you can find it here. 


After breakfast I worked on getting the dishes done and the house tidied up because we were going to have lots of company over that evening.  Once all of the boring house chores were over, we had a quick, light lunch, and then I finally got around to planting my herbs.  Now, if you’ve hung around my blog for quite sometime then you know that I have a self-proclaimed “black thumb.”  However, since I finally learned how to keep ferns alive, and I have kept my grandmother’s 50+ year old plant alive for more than a year, I thought I might try my hand at something a little more complicated.  I decided to grow all six herbs from seeds, and I have never ever done that before, so, y’all, I will be positively shocked if something actually sprouts.  I won’t know what to do with myself.  Haha. 

I planted six herbs – mint, rosemary, and chives in pots on the back porch, and then basil, oregano, and sage inside.  I have no flipping clue what sage smells like or what you even use it for, but since my little pot says “sage” on it, I thought I might as well give it a try!  I will keep y’all posted on how these turn out!


For the rest of the afternoon I laid out in the back yard.  One of the things on my summer bucket list is to get a tan (and try to keep it all summer) and so far I’m rolling right along!  I was itching to finish my book Still Me, so it was the perfect day for it.  I did finish it, and I loved it so much!

After I finished my book it was time to head inside and get ready.  I dressed in my red, white, and blue best and then it was time to get the house staged for our guests.  The house was already decorated for The 4th so I went around turning on all of the lamps, lighting candles, turning on twinkle lights, and filling up the pool, and then I started shuffling our favorite summer party play list.  It’s mostly recent country music with a few other party songs from our favorites thrown in there – Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake, Ed Sheeran, Dave Matthews Band… you know, the usual crew.  :o)

Once the house was staged it was time to start cooking.  My Momma brought over her famous hamburgers and mac n cheese, and I was in charge of baked beans, watermelon, and dessert.  B and the kids had baked our favorite homemade chocolate chip cookies earlier in the day, and we had also bought some the festive red, white, and blue frosting cookies from Publix that we love so much.


Everyone started arriving around 4:30 and by the end we had a house full!  My parents, my father-in-law, my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew, my grandmother, my uncle, and his girlfriend, plus the four of us were all in attendance.  Unfortunately my littlest brother had to work, so he wasn’t able to join.  :o( 

B fired up the grill and grilled my Momma’s burgers plus some hot dogs, and we mixed up Moscow Mules and Lemon Drops.  Everyone stuffed their faces and it was all so delicious.  Once dinner was over, we all headed outside to watch the kiddos play in the pool.  The evening was perfect – it was sunny, but by some miracle it wasn’t sweltering hot!!  That’s a huge deal when we’re talking about weather in the south in July!! 

The kiddos splashed around in the pool until dusk and then it was time for dessert and fireworks.  We had bought a bunch of fireworks and so did my brother and SIL, so we had quite the show in our own back yard.  The craziest part, though, was how many fireworks our neighbors did!!  Our house is smack in the middle of our neighborhood, and we were literally surrounded on all sides by my neighbors doing their fireworks.  Our neighbors in the culdesac must have spent a bajillion dollars because they put on a HUGE show for probably two whole hours.  It was crazy.  Everyone loved it… well, except for Olivia.  Bless her little heart, she is still terrified of them.  She told us she was “going to be brave of the fireworks” but as soon as they started popping, she took her little self inside.  My Daddy stayed inside with her all evening watching cartoons at an obscenely high volume to try to drown out the fireworks noise.  He’s such a great Pop.  <3












During the neighbors’ fireworks, we pulled the benches and chairs off the porch and out into the yard so we could see all of them, and my sister-in-law snapped this picture of my nephew and me.  Y’all, is it not the sweetest picture you ever did see??  Since they lived so far away for the first two years of his life, he only got to see us a couple of times, so he still hasn’t totally warmed to me yet.  So any time he is willing to sit with me, I just eat it right up!  And I love that my SIL captured this sweet moment.

The fireworks finally wound down a little after 10 and then it was time to say goodbye to everyone.  A few fireworks were still popping in the distance so Olivia was still a bit apprehensive about going to bed alone, so we let her and Jacob have another slumber party in his room together.  They finally passed out in their sleeping bags a little after 11, but it wasn’t a big deal for once, because they didn’t have to wake up at the crack of dawn the next day because I DON’T WORK ANYMORE!!!! 

I will never ever stop being grateful for that!! 

Happy Monday, y’all!

Don't forget to link up with HeatherJohannah, and myself... just grab our new graphic and link up below!



*Linking up with B Loved Boston for Weekending and HoHo Runs for Weekly Wrap.







21 comments:

  1. What a fun day and filled with tons of family time! That inflatable pool is a game changer! xo, Biana- BlovedBoston

    ReplyDelete
  2. I pinned your waffles because I know my family would love them too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, Michele! I hope they do! You can also change out the sprinkles to different colors for the different holidays. :o)

      Delete
  3. You are brave! I've never grown herbs from seeds! I hope you get something! I've done sage in the past, it smells amazing. Sage butter is delicious. We love it on pork chops. This recipe is really good. https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/new-favorite-pork-chops

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a fun 4th. Our dogs were terrified of the fireworks!! ��

    ReplyDelete
  5. The All-American precious family doing up the 4th right!! LOVE these pictures!! Especially the last one!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great day! I would love your lemon drop recipe. I’m so glad you don’t have to work. It really affects everything! Ha! I would love to see a post on how you save money and have adapted if it isn’t too personal. I love talking finance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ya know, my uncle's girlfriend made the lemon drops so I'll have to ask her for it! I know there was Tito's vodka and some kind of lemonade but I'm not sure what else. And you are not the only one who has asked about our financial situation since I quit my job. I might try to put a post together about that here soon!

      Delete
  7. I still have Me After You on my bookshelf that I need to read!! I've heard Still Me is sooo good though! It looks like you all had such a fun 4th!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love the 4th of July! It's my favorite holiday! What a fun way to spend your day doing everything from relaxing to hanging with your favorite people :) missed you all while we were on vacation and excited to catch back up :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Looks like the perfect 4th!! Ella is usually terrified of fireworks but this year we gave her some noise cancelling headphones and she sat outside the whole time!

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a fun 4th!! I love that y'all didn't have to drive anywhere for a fireworks show!
    Sarah at MeetTheShaneyfelts

    ReplyDelete
  11. Aww, love your photos and sweet moments from the 4th! The waffles look awesome. And how perfect that you could watch fireworks from your house! We braved the late night and watched city fireworks. Our kids did great, but were fussy the next day. :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a great day you all had! Those waffles are so festive and fun! The larger fireworks are still illegal here but some people sneak them and we get to see them being set off around us. What a show right in your backyard! Sierra Beautifully Candid

    ReplyDelete
  13. Sounds like a wonderful 4th! Love that picture of you and your nephew! So sweet!

    ReplyDelete
  14. What a great day! It looks like everybody had so much fun!

    ReplyDelete
  15. What a wonderful day! I love all the sweet photos! Family time and fireworks is the best!

    ReplyDelete
  16. LOVE that last shot your sister in-law captured during the fireworks, and I need those waffles! <3
    Green Fashionista

    ReplyDelete
  17. It sounds like you had a fabulous Fourth of July!! Have you ever thought of getting Olivia headphones to wear, like the kind adults wear when using loud machines? Annabelle doesn't like loud noises and this helped her.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to comment... I read and respond to each and every one! However, if you are a no-reply blogger (meaning that your email address is not connected to your Blogger account), I will not be able to reply to you directly via email... you will have to check back on the blog post for a response!