The Fourth

I had some spare time and used picnik.com to turn some of our arboretum pictures into 4th of July pictures. I love how they turned out!

The younger two made our traditional flag cake--frozen pound cake frosted with Cool Whip and decorated with berries. 

We ate on the deck. It is like being in a treehouse. We had hamburgers, potato salad, chips, and cake for dessert. Nothing too fancy. 

Here is my little table display for the holiday.  The print is from Today's Fabulous Finds. She makes such nice prints. She just posted her summer versions in a variety of colors.  The star is out of printer paper. Sad, I know. Next year's will be out of some smart looking scrapbook paper.  The directions of making it came from The Gunny Sack

We went to a parade in a neighboring suburb since ours started its festivities later this year. 

The parade itself was nice, but not spectacular, but this flyover was cool. 

We listened to my husband play with the band he is part of. We ended the night by watching fireworks on the beach.  It was a fun, relaxing day! I hope yours was too.

Family Time

We had a great time last night at the arboretum. How lucky we are to be so close to it! Feel free to tune out from the many pictures that follow at anytime.  The arboretum is a photographer's paradise.  Prior to walking around, we had a picnic. The food was just right.  We had Pasta Salad Skewers from Cooking During Stolen Moments, sandwiches, chips, and strawberries.  For dessert we had mini chocolate cupcakes from Target.  Yum!

We started with a walk around the bog.  The youngest was particularly into posing en route.

This photo reminds me of The Wizard of Oz.

The youngest liked this candy cane rose and so did I.

The calla lillies were lovely.

A lot of the roses were past their prime, but not this one.

The hedge maze.

The end. Whew! Have a great Fourth!

Excerpts

Here are a few pictures from the blur that was the end of June.  On Father's Day, the girls got in a round of mini-golf with dad.  It has become a tradition.

The youngest had fun participating in a drama camp with a couple of her friends.  They, together with many others, were part of Beauty and the Beast.  She was a village baker and a plate.

This was the set.  You can't see it too well, but on the little table is a cloche with the rose under it.  The petals are supposed to drop off until the beast finds true love.  During the first performance, the rose just wiggled periodically.  Apparently the petals are held on to the stem with velcro and some type of fish hook arrangement is supposed to pull them off.  It worked during the second performance.

The young woman who was Belle did a great job.  She has a beautiful voice.

It was hard to get good pictures between the lighting and the heads of the audience or, trust me, I'd have more!

We also went to our local annual production.  This year it was Bye-Bye Birdie.  I wasn't familiar with the story.  It was cute.  It is similar to the real event--Elvis joining the army.

And "poof" it was July!