4th of July 2017.

As you all probably know, the 4th of July is my favorite holiday ever. I mean, birthdays are a huge deal and America's?! It doesn't get any bigger. I'm pretty sure I inform people of that every year. ;) This year, was no exception. It was just as awesome as I expected it to be regardless of it landing on a Tuesday. And I always go through my 10,837 photos after it's over and think, I didn't take enough pictures....this is the truth. I'm not kidding. Ha ha.

We had a cookout at our house on Sunday. The weather was perfection and the drinks were flowing! The kids had a grand old time playing and splashing in the pool while the adults relaxed. Now, rewind to last week, we weren't sure if we were even going to have a get together since the storms that came through had destroyed our outdoor patio section! Literally. We came home to chairs at the bottom of the pool, a metal umbrella snapped in half, glass shattered all over the patio and IN the POOL! (Ugh) Even my palms were tossed about the yard like rag dolls. I thought, great! How on earth are we going to get the glass out of the pool!?! To my surprise, there are actual divers that do just this for a living! Yeah....pretty cool. So he came and spent a couple hours in the pool and saved the cookout. Ty helped clean up the rest of the patio and we concluded it was microbursts or something that had done the dirty work since the rest of our yard was untouched.

So Sunday was a great time with good food and awesome friends. Of course Ty and I had to work on Monday but I got out early to do some relaxing in the pool by myself. Which may I inform you, was glorious. Then Ty met me for a impromptu date....all of but 35 minutes and a quick couple drinks at a new little place in downtown called the Sinclair.  We take what we can. Then we picked up Maxwell for a haircut. It was time getting really long and crazy in the summer heat. He normally HATES getting his hair cut. We used to have the "Hair Fairy" come to our house to cut his hair but after holding him down one too many times and watching him scream bloody murder, we decided to try a different approach. We took him to a little shop outside of town where "Vinny" propped him up on the chair by himself, gave him a  lolli-pop and went to town cutting his hair. It was a miracle! No crying or even a whimper. Vinny said, "He just wanted to hang with the big boys, not the hair fairy!" Ha. So that may have been the truth.

Anyhow, we packed up the kids and went to Ty's father's house on the lake to eat Smore's and watch fireworks. Granted, the view from his house would have been perfect, we decided to go out on the dock and watch them on the water. This was the first year that Maxwell really appreciated them. His little "Wows!!" made me smile. After, we had some drinks by the fire and then headed home to get some sleep. When we woke up on the actual 4th of July, we ate breakfast with the windows open and relaxed a little before heading downtown to watch the Patriotic Parade. Scarlett's favorite part was the "Patriotic Pooches" all dressed up in their red, white and blue. We walked Congress Park and ate Smoothie Bowls, pet doggies and found baby ducklings. It was all about the kids. They really enjoyed the day and that alone made MY day. Then we packed up the car yet again and headed north to my sister's house for another cookout. I was planning on laying low and not drinking for the evening since I had consume more than my share over the weekend.....but! My sister made the most amazing Margarita's that I think I've ever drank! So I had one....or two. Ok 3. 

And we laughed and swam and had a great time. We even took a walk around their neighborhood before packing up the car to head back for Saratoga's Party in the Park and Fireworks. On the way home, around 5:30, the kids fell asleep and wouldn't wake up for anything. We laid them in Maxwell's room together and there they laid until the next morning when I had to wake them both up. Ha!! They were pooped. So we didn't even see fireworks on the 4th. But I can assure you that they had a blast of a long weekend. I hope you all had a great 4th!! 

4th of July talk.

Tomorrow is not only my favorite holiday ever, but it is my Scarlett's 14 month birthday.
Happy 14 months little Peanut!! Look how much she's grown!

What is everyone doing for the 4th? Cookouts? Fireworks? Pool Parties? Parades?
This all sounds so exciting.
And this is what we will be doing, as well.

I told Ty that I want to go on some vacations this summer/fall.
He told me to start looking for some weekend getaways.
So that is what I have been doing the past couple of days.
We are going to the ocean in New Hampshire in a couple weeks.
We are going to a wedding in Independence Harbor end of July.
And a weekend with my girl friends in York Maine in August.

So that is a start to some vacations.
Maybe this fall we'll take a week and go to sunny Florida!!
We'll see....

Scarlett is feeling better. Thank you all for your gracious comments and wonderful emails!
They seriously made me feel so loved and I am so thankful for such amazing readers!
She has a few teeth coming in, on top of all of the other stuff going on, so she's had a pretty rough few days.

We've been doing a lot of lounging and cuddling with movies.
I'm just about to get off of the computer and go cook Haystacks for dinner.
I use this recipe HERE if anyone wants a delicious taco salad/haystack recipe.
I hope you all have a safe and wonderful 4th of July!

My Better Late Than Never, 4th of July Post.

I realize that The 4th of July was over 4 days ago. I just haven't had a free moment to catch up and post this. The 4th is one of my favorite holidays. Always has been. A holiday in the beginning of summer combined with cookouts, drinks, family and the fact that we are celebrating America's birthday and honoring all of the people who fought for our freedom makes it just that more awesome.

We had no big plans this weekend besides watching some fireworks. Ty was lucky enough to get the holiday weekend off (a rare occasion) and we took full advantage of getting to spend time together. The long weekend turned out to be way more eventful than we planned. I got wild and made a red, white and blue trifle for our cook-out on Friday. We had some friends from Texas, my older sister and her family over. A small but festive gathering. We walked into the city to watch the parade and on our way out, we tried some food from the Barb-A-Cue & dessert festival. We ended the 4th with fireworks. It was a quieter 4th than I'm used to but it was still good. On Saturday, I had this impromptu idea to head out and play some miniature golf. I thought that Scarlett was finally at an old enough age that she could try it out. We headed to Lake George since they have some of the best mini-golf around. Scarlett was just in heaven with the entire process. It was a good day in her book. Then we grabbed some dinner by the lake before taking an overtired, un-napped Scarlett home. It wasn't a pretty dinner scene at. all. I'll spare you the tantrum details. ;)

Sunday was one of those mornings when you wake up with the sun peeking through the shades and that awesome feeling comes over you that today is going to be a great day. And oh was it.

We all (even Scarlett) slept in until almost 9 am and then we woke up and hung around in our pajamas. Ty made coffee and blueberry scones while Scarlett played and laughed with Ula. If you are new around here, Ula is our French Bulldog that joined our family about 3 months ago. We got outside in the sun around 11. I replanted my some new (and old) plants into new planters. It's been on the to-do list for awhile and Sunday turned out to be the perfect sunny day to tackle it. Scarlett played in her sprinklers with the dog and Ty washed his Harley in the drive-way. I made some Sangria and played some music in the back yard as I got dirty in the soil. Yeah….it was one of those picture perfect days that I'll keep locked up in my memory for quite a while. 


Later in the afternoon, Ty's motorcycle buddies asked us to come out on a ride with them. Since Grandpa came to visit and offered to stay with Scarlett, we hopped on the bike and headed out. It was the first time that I've rode the Harley since Ty got it over 6 months ago. We rode around the entire Lake Sacandaga, which by the way, was scenic and very pretty. I was really into the ride. I could have rode for quite awhile longer if it wasn't for my poor butt that isn't quite used to the VRod yet…

Anyhow, it was a really wonderful weekend. Not too busy but with plenty of fun events. I hope you all had an awesome long weekend as well!

July....and some June too.

The Fourth of July this year was a strange one. It didn't seem like the amazing, fully celebrated holiday that I host to the fullest each and every year. It's no secret that it's my favorite holiday ever. Or that I love to host parties. This party-loving girl usually throws a big bash with lots of food, drinks and red, white and blue attire AND drinks. I can't say that this summer has been my favorite. Pretty dull for this adventure seeker.
This year we didn't do much for the 4th of July. We just had a small cookout by ourselves. Our favorite dishes, of course. We hung out by the pool and it was just a quiet 4th. I took a nap by the pool if that tells you anything. Ha ha. Ty did take the kids to go buy fireworks and we made our own little display in the front yard. Our neighborhood puts on quite the display as well! No firework laws in good ole Texas! Seaworld is also not far from our house so we can see those fireworks every single evening. The kids loved the sparklers and roman candles. Some neighbors joined us and we had a fun little evening despite it being low-key. The kids were smiling so in my eyes, that was enough.

Guys, the itch to go away has been REAL! If you know me at all, you know staying in one place too long makes me crazy. Especially if that place is this tiny rental house that we have been living in for the past year! Last year we took SO many trips and vacations. We explored and saw so many cool and exciting things! This year, not-a-one vacation! There's been a lot going on with the building of our house and then me getting pregnant and being sick...nonstop. I feel like this summer was a bust. I didn't do much with the kids and I feel guilty about that. I know they probably don't even think twice about it but I still do. When I see that quote going around FB and Insta, "You only have 18 delicious summers with your kids...." it makes me sad. First off, I don't like this quote because most people have to work and therefore don't really get much of the summer with their kids. So it could make a lot of people feel pretty crumby. And secondly, on top of working full time, I just have been way too sick to even do a thing with my kids. I took one day off this summer to bring them to the pool and have a picnic with friends and I ended up getting sick with a nasty virus that day. Of course. So we ended up leaving the pool early and the super fun kids day  I had in mind....was not so much. I've been thinking that I need to start planning a little trip for us as a family. Even if it's not for another few months...it would give us something to look forward to. We have the move coming up, school starting and a few other things that would make it impossible for us to even think about going away now, but I do think a trip before the baby comes is in order!! And I've got my heart set on California! But we'll see. I feel like once this move happens and school starts, time is going to start fast-forwarding. We are headed back to Mass in October and then when we return, it's Thanksgiving and Christmas and.....New Year's oh my! Then, baby prep time. So let's hope we can squeeze in a little Babymoon before baby girl comes.

I've just been trying to be at peace with this stage of life. I'm learning to be patient (not my best quality) with the fact that I need to rest. Sometimes you have to take a step back and breathe....slow down before you can move full speed ahead. So July, and this summer in general, was mostly me resting and trying to recoup for what I hope will be a very exciting Fall!

4th of July 2018.

 It was a low key 4th of July in Texas this year. It pretty much consisted of lots of water play to keep cool (it's been HOT), sweet treats and chasing down the ice cream truck. We had a completely clean menu for our Independence Day meal this year- something we have never done before. I shared on Instagram everything that we ate. It felt good to be able to enjoy really good food and still know it was healthy and clean. The kids washed the Buick and splashed in the water with the dog. If you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen that I've partnered with Buick for some collaborations!! This is such a fun project for me since I have loved our Buick Enclave from day 1! I'm looking forward to these!

We did take the kids to The Pearl in downtown San Antonio and let them play in the splash pad. This is one of the things they ask to do every weekend. Ty and I don't mind since we usually grab a beverage and chill on the green while they run around with all of the other kids.


The last photo in this post is from the kid's Summer Camp Parade. They each had some cute performances. All in all it was really a VERY laid back 4th for us. We generally have big pool parties, cook-outs and events that never end all weekend long, like this one HERE. I'm still getting used to not knowing many people here. That never gets easier for me. I love a house full of friends and fam eating food and laughing. I hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday!!