July Celebrations

We celebrated July events last night during our heat wave. I decided to grill out since there was no way I was going to turn on the oven or stove but felt the celebration dinner needed something a little fancier than sandwiches.



So, here's what we had, along with a nice green salad and some Food Should Taste Good brand multigrain chips (very, very, VERY yummy!):



K.C. and I enjoyed a pretty yummy vegetarian sausage (Field Roast brand Mexican Chipotle). If you've ever tasted soyrizo (the vegetarian version of chorizo), it tastes pretty similar. But, this one is a lot firmer so it can be grilled like a regular meat sausage.

The girls had Yves brand veggie hot dogs, which, in my opinion (and that of the rest of my family) tasted very mouthwashy/mediciney. NOT a big hit but definitely better than the soy hot dogs I tried several years ago (they smelled and tasted just like what dog food smells like). I think next time I'll just get the organic meat version for them (as much as it grosses me out!).

For dessert I made a raw chocolate cheesecake. This was super duper yummy but tasted more like chocolate pudding (SO not complaining!) but had the texture of cheesecake. And I love that it's good for you! Here is the ingredient list: pecans, coconut oil, agave, raw chocolate powder (I cheated a little and just used Hershey's cocoa powder, since I had it on hand and all), vanilla bean, sea salt, young Thai coconut meat (took me awhile to open that darn coconut!) avocado and cashews. Sounds like a weird combination, I know, but it tastes heavenly...or sinfully, whichever way you want to look at it;-)
Here's a view just out of the freezer. The marbled look is due to the plastic wrap that was on it.

And a big 'ol slice served up. Well, they weren't such big slices since the taste is so rich.


And this is who we are celebrating this month:

Birthdays:
- our friend Dawn
- my classmate Michelle
- our nephew Dylan
- America - of course!
- my classmate Launa
- our little friend Connor
- our friend Heather
- our friend & neighbor Evie
- my Grandpa Wake
- K.C.'s Great Grandma Genthe ( 7/25/1908 ~ 04/24/2008)
- our friend Mado
Anniversaries:
- Jeff & Kristie celebrate 1 year of marital bliss

Get Well:
- My dad is having the x-stop spacer surgery as I type. Here's to a fast recovery and a life without pain!

Milestones:
- My dad is celebrating a 0 reading on his PSA levels after having his prostate removed almost two years ago! We hope you continue to remain cancer free!

Happy Fourth of July (late)!

Happy Fourth Of July....Late! We had a great day. Very relaxing.

K.C. entertained the girls on the front porch (that's where the breeze and shade were) while I grilled us up some grub.

I wanted to do some sort of something fun and got all kinds of ideas off the internet. I settled on doing a combination of a couple of different drinks. I made blue and red ice cubes and we poured sprite over them - that was our red, white and blue drink:

Then I got some pop rocks and poured those into the drink for a little firecracker show. It was short and apparently not too impressive:

The grub turned out great though. K.C. and the girls had turkey burgers, I had a portabello mushroom burger and we all ate red, white and blue potatoes, asparagus, corn, watermelon and Tim's Pepper Jack Cheese flavored chips. SO yummy!
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Next up was running through the sprinklers. Quinn had a blast with it:


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Sydney tried it out once or twice but wasn't too interested in it. So, I've included some pictures of her eating. Notice how her food is stacked so neatly?!:

Next up was singing Happy Birthday to America. I originally was going to serve popsicles for dessert. But, I broke down and bought an apple pie at work the night before - since it was on coupon and all - so we stuck a couple of candles in it and off we went!


After some well deserved naps and a second round of grub, we headed out to Lake Wilderness to catch the fireworks show. This is something I've wanted to do since we moved here and finally felt the girls could handle it this year. It did not disappoint! When we got there the band was still playing so the girls boogied down:

I love this picture of Syd. It looks like she's doing the hustle!

Quinn was impressing everyone with her donkey kicks!

She also impressed us with her photography skills:

While waiting for the fireworks to start, we got in a few shots with the girls:


And, watching the fireworks. Sydney just about fell asleep!


It was the best Fourth of July I've had in a long, long time! Looking forward to doing it again next year!