Neighborhood Cookout

We had to postpone our weekend 4th of July cookout due to the rain we had on Sunday, but we just moved it to Monday evening and everyone was still able to participate.
Ellie and Taylor (who lives across the cul-de-sac from us) both won "most Patriotic" contest. The kids spent a good portion of the afternoon filling up water balloons and that evening they had a big water balloon fight. Here is Steve and Ellie in on the action.Great friends, great food, a fun evening.

Forty and Fabulous !

My 40th Bithday arrived despite my protests these past few months leading up to it.
I have to say that on my actual birthday all I felt was joy. I was happy and excited to celebrate my day even though it was raining all day and all of our original plans had to be postponed to another day.
Steve made me a wonderful home-cooked breakfast in the morning after which I returned back to my bed for a little extra rest. I received phone cals from friends and family wishing me Happy Birthday. About noon, I took off to spend the afternoon shopping by myself for new running shoes (Steve's gift to me after my announcement that I intended to run the Richmond half-marathon this November) and some new clothes and sunglasses.
I met up with my family and friends for dinner at a favorite local Mexican place and we had a great time together.
At home Bethany surprised me with a gift she had made--a photo cube with all of our pictures on it. I love it!
So far, 40 isn't so bad !

Fun and Festive Treat

This is a dessert I made for the kids for the Fourth of July. You take pretzel rods and dip into white chocolate, then roll in sprinkles of your choice. I had a really hard time finding patriotic sprinkles on July 3rd, I wonder why!

4th of July

Our holiday was spent in Franklin, VA with friends at their family compound, Brown's Beach. They have a nice man-made lake to swim and fish in with a beach and nice pavilion. We only had Felicia and Ellie with us, since Sam is up in PA visiting grandpernts adn cousins etc. until next week and Bethany went camping with a friend and her family for the weekend. Felicia spent almost all day in the water, jumping, diving, on the paddleboats and rafts etc. She and Ellie also learned how to fish for the first time ever and Felicia caught a few. We enjoyed great food and awesome margaritas while relaxing in the non-humid July afternoon ???!! Amazing weather we had....

Long Weekend !

I am looking forward to a fun filled long Holiday weekend with family and friends. I am taking Bethany to a friend's house in the morning-she is going camping with them for the weekend, and Sam is still in PA-don't know if I'll end up getting any pictures of his adventures--but he will spend the 4th with his cousins and then his grandparents at picnics and fireworks. Steve and I, Felicia and Ellie have a lot of things planned for the next few days, will post our activities afterward!

Turkey Blueberry Salad

I just made this really yummy salad for lunch and had to share about it because it's something different and oh so delicious! I had made a turkey breast yesterday for dinner and had a lot left. For some reason, I thought it would pair nicely with bluberries so I googled in turkey bluberry salald recipe to see what would come up. I got a recipe that I had to change a little, but it turned out great! I used romaine lettuce with turkey breast, yellow peppers, bluberries, and sliced almonds for the salad, then made a blueberry vinegarette in the blender using blueberries, vinegar, oil,salt,sugar,diced onions.
It was really pretty to look at, too, with all the color in it, but I forgot to take a picture!

First Day of Summer School

Ellie is enrolled in the Pre-K Summer School program at her elementary school. She will be able to get a feel for what Kindergarten is all about and keep her pre-reading and writing skills up over the summer. Yesterday was her first day and she was so excited, although she was disappointed to learn that Mom was going to drive her--she thought she was going on the bus!
Her teacher's name is Ms. Berry and the classroom is very big. She has a cubby with her name on to put her backpack and snack etc. She attends from 8am-12pm.