O Say Can You See

This won’t come as a surprise to anyone, but I love creating fun food for holidays. Independence Day is coming up and there is a specific patriotic cake I’ve been wanting to create for the past few years, so I decided this was the year to make it happen. I created my masterpiece last Friday when Kevin, Matthew and Malia were camping so it would be a fun surprise when we cut into it. Then I tucked it in the freezer to stay fresh for a few days. This evening we ate my creation for Family Home Evening. I love how it turned out! All it was missing was some white star sprinkles (which I could not find in a Matthew friendly version).

I’m already making plans for next year. 😉

They’ve Got Cabin Fever

I’m not a huge fan of camping. I used to enjoy it, but my tendency to get migraines from the heat and the grapefruit size swollen, itchy spots that I get when bug bitten kind of takes the fun out of it. As a result, I generally stay home when Kev takes the kids camping. After having been cooped up at home for the past three months, Matthew and Malia were getting pretty stir crazy. Kevin arranged an overnight trip with his brother and his family, and all involved in the adventure were super excited. I think Matthew and Malia had a wonderful time. Not only did they get out of the house, but they got to spend some socially distanced time with cousins and sleep in the great outdoors. As for me, I was perfectly content to spend a quiet night at home watching a chick flick. It was a win for all of us.

Giving Tie Dye Another Try

While life has not been normal of late, we have tried to find some sense of normalcy whenever we can. One of our normal summer traditions is creating a patriotic t-shirt to celebrate Independence Day. We tried tie dye about nine years ago and the dye ran together and ended up creating purplish t-shirts. I’ve learned some things since then and so we decided to make another attempt at creating a tricolor design. The kids all had a great time. Daniel and Nathan both spent a considerable amount of time getting the dye just where they wanted it. We’ll have to wait a day or two to see the final outcome, but it was a fun way to spend an afternoon.