Happy 4th of July

My children woke up to BLUE pancakes for the 4th of July. I had to put them in the patriotic spirit and what better way to do it than with BLUE pancakes. (The red ones turned out to be pink, so I went with blue.)

Both of my kiddos loved the BLUE pancakes. Vaughn had to work all day on the 4th and Tyson decided to come down with a nasty cough and flu like symptoms the night before, SO......I had to make our day festivities my own way. We wouldn't be making it to Pigeon Forge's 4th of July celebration so I would bring the festival to us, at home.

After the hearty helping of the blue pancakes, we got ready and made star cookies.

We had planned on a picnic outside, but the weather decided to rain and we were stuck to improvise again. No worries! We turned our chairs around, sat on the floor and ate lunch while listening to the thunder outside. The kids thought it was cool!

The time came to decorate the cookies and Taryn gave them a generous DUMPING of sprinkles.

This particular handy work of my daughter's will give you enough sugar for the next two days! She informed me that she was decorating the cookie like Fancy Nancy would. AH HA! That is why there are so MANY sprinkles.

The finished product. We incorporated the red, white and blue theme of the day.

After cookie decorating and eating, Vaughn came home and we BBQ some hamburgers and hot dogs. We had a traditional 4th of July meal with macaroni salad, watermelon, lemonade, chips and lots of laughter. And what meal wouldn't be complete with some ice cream. We headed down the road to Bruster's for some black raspberry cheese cake and butter pecan ice cream. YUMMY!!

With ice cream in hand we got back into the car and set out to find some fireworks. We happened to find a big place with lots of people setting on blankets and chairs looking up into the sky. That will work! Vaughn found us a parking spot and we spread out our blanket among the other spectators. Here is Tyson asking his dad for the umpteenth time, "When are the fireworks going to start?"

And the rocket's red flare,

The bombs bursting in air,

gave proof to the night that our flag was still there. Loved it! They were awesome and we had front row seats to the show! Taryn was the only one that wanted to leave after the first firework blasted in the air. She didn't like the BOOM of the bombs in the air. I put my hands over her ears and she was content to watch the rest of the night sky show. (giggle, giggle) She cracks me up. It was a great 4th of July.