We had an all-American 4th that continued all weekend long. The highlight was the INCREDIBLE weather!! The hurricane must have sucked every drop of humidity and every cloud in the sky away because we have never had weather this perfect. It felt like mid-September!
We spent the morning of the 4th as a regular day and then headed over to our friends’ community pool after naps.
The boys swam and I read magazines in the shade : )
MY OTHER RECIPES
Our friends hosted a cookout that was very patriotic and a blast!
There was lots of food
{We brought the watermelon, goat feta and basil salad – yum!}
But Jessica’s desserts stole the show – trifle and key lime pie!! I ate way too much of both – they were smashing.
Family photos!
Then it was sparkler time
On Saturday morning, which felt like Sunday, we sipped coffee and had a light toast breakfast before heading out on a run
We covered our usual 3 miles before ending up at the market.
Refreshments!
Back at home I made a clean-out-the-fridge lunch of veggies with sunbutter, watermelon salad and a yogurt with blackberries and key lime pie curd that we got as a sample at the bakery – it’s delish!
Saturday afternoon Karen came over to hang with Mazen while we went to Champion for some beers. This was a pineapple coconut IPA that wasn’t as flavorful as I would have liked, but was still good!
Fun with Natalie and Jeff
We all returned for a cookout at our place for dinner
With the meal courtesy of Blue Apron! Full recap coming soon : ) These were homemade fried chicken sliders with slaw and homemade pickles – thumbs up!
Karen brought over leftover rice pudding cake for dessert!
And then we had lots of fun singing the Star Spangled Banner as a group and using up all of our sparkler stash
Sunday morning we had more coffee and another light breakfast before hitting the gym
Afterwards we went to Petit Pois for brunch!
Couldn’t resist…
I had the focaccia and poached eggs with the best melted cheese on top
Just look at that poached perfection!
We wrapped up Sunday with some meal prep
And a whole lotta DIY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And finally, we ended the weekend with this epic dinner created by Cook Smarts and tweaked by me: Orangey Salmon with eggplant, cucumber salad with goat cheese and orangey dressing and smashed taters with yogurt.
Hope you had a happy Independence Day!
You guys always have so much fun!
Looks like a great weekend. Love the sparkler pictures!
What a wonderful weekend! I love those sparkler pictures–so fun! It’s always so hard to get back to the daily grind after a fun holiday weekend.
Such great eats! Your Saturday morning toast looks amazing!! Yum.
We DIY’d board and batten in our house too! (recapped here if interested: http://www.sneakersandspatulas.com/2013/11/11/living-and-dining-room-before-and-after/) It is amazing how it can transform a room!
Wow yours is GORGEOUS!! It must have taken you so long : ) We had the same issue with uneven floors, but luckily we realized it before we had cut the battens.
Looks like you had a great weekend! I’d love more info on the board and batten project. The DIY bloggers always make it look like a relatively easy project, but I’d love to hear how it went for you!
I followed Young House Love’s tutorial to a T. It took me 6 months to get up the courage! Their instructions were super clear and easy and they really were right that anyone can do it. We had some issues with caulking that I fixed with touch up paint up top, and we bought a miter saw box that solved our problem of very narrow baseboards. I’m SO glad we did it!
Looks like you had a lot of fun! You should put that KERF sparkler pic in your top pictures bar, front and center 😀
Thanks for sharing your holiday!! Everything looked so fun, and delicious looking food too.
Perfect weekend! You always squeeze in so much! 🙂 Awesome that you had such good weather! We’re having a bout of pelting rain here at the moment…the plants are happy!
Such an exciting weekend! That 4th of July dessert looked fabulous. Yum!
That key lime pie and trifle look so perfect!
It looks like you all had a fabulous fourth! I love all of your outfits, Kath! Mazen looks adorable in those sunglasses. I missed out on sparkler fun because I forgot to buy any, but I love “KERF” spelled out-you captured a wonderful shot. Have a great Monday!
That smiling photo of Mazen is so lovely! It gives you a real idea of his ‘grown up’ face – if that makes sense?!
Glad to see you had a lovely weekend!
I thought so too! I had to crop out Matt who was making a crazy face : )
So funny – I bought a watermelon and thing of feta with every intent of making a salad out of it, only to have the kids eat the entire watermelon in about 3 minutes flat for lunch by the river! It really did it the spot, I have to say. And the feta became part of another dinner that I’ll definitely be sharing later this week.
Haha irresistible !
What a fun post, and your sparkler photos are amazing. How’d you do that? And I have to tell you that your Mazen is absolutely joyful. Those shots of him are great. I just love seeing how he is growing up so fast.
That “pucker” photo is the cutest thing ever!
His cue is “Make a funny face!” : )
envious of your clear, glowing skin — secrets?
Wow, you did have a great weekend! Love the recap. The family pics are gorgeous!
Your sparkler pictures are awesome! You need to teach us your ways! 😉
Those sparkler pictures are SO cool! Love it! And the food looks amazing (as always)!
I love what you did with the sparklers! How cool! Did you just use a slow shutter speed to capture that? Really neat. 🙂
The B setting actually. Where the shutter stays open until the word is complete (I think!)
Wow — such a great weekend! I love the family photos … so freaking cute! And that trifle! And the pie! Times like this I wish I could dive right into the page for a bite. Yum!
Glad you had a wonderful holiday!
So many things to say about this post #1) that sparkler KERF picture is amazing #2) you look so beautiful and radiant in that close up of you #3) maze is SO cute in his sunnies!!
Mazen looks so grown up!
I loved the sparkler pictures. That’s really cool how they spelled out names with them.
I also am very curious about the rice pudding cake. That sounds amazing!
Glad you had a nice 4th!
What a fun weekend! I love stopping by our Farmer’s Market on the weekend!
I don’t know how you picked what to get from the Petit Pois menu because it all looks AMAZING.
Looks like fun! Just wanted to say that you look so pretty & healthy lately! Not that you haven’t always, but you are radiant in your recent pics. Your skin looks great and I like the blonder hair. 🙂 Mazen also keeps getting cuter & cuter!
Thank you!
pineapple coconut IPA!? That sounds great! Too bad it wasn’t as flavorful as you’d hoped, I can imagine a pineapple beer would be really good.
Yes, please tell us more about the rice pudding cake! Sounds amazing!
Mazen is such a sweet little guy. His smile gets me… xo
What a lovely looking weekend!! I love the duck face family pic, too cute!
Your weekend looks amazing. The restaurants in your town look so delicious. Pineapple coconut IPA sounds amazing and that picture is gorgeous! I’ve had a coconut IPA and unfortunately I couldn’t taste it in it. I wish it’d have more of a coconut flavor.
Does Karen have a recipe for the rice pudding pie? yum!
She does – I’ll ask her to post it
Where does Karen post? I would love the rice pudding cake recipe! Thanks!
I was hoping she could post it in the comments, but unfortunately she doesn’t have a link to the recipe : (