Let Freedom Ring!

What a perfectly fabulous Independence Day we celebrated yesterday! I'm not sure which was better...the good company, or the delicious food!? Always the debate, lol! Fortunately, I never have to choose between the two...I get to enjoy BOTH! :0)

But because it's (probably) most appropriate, I will first share my favorite moments that revolved around people ;0)...

One of the many great things about having a little girl, is dressing her up! :0)))

But our little girl wasn't the only cutie at the party...there were MANY!...

This picture was a lot harder to capture than one might think!...

My sister and I rocked the Red, the White, and the Blue too!

Believe it or not, I didn't ONLY care about fashion!...there was so much FUN to be had at the party too!

There were fruit-salad-making-dates...

And Raspberry Ranger Fighters...Defenders of Freedom...of course...

There were "chatty" clams...

Offenses...and DEFENCES (My dad's famous quote, "In MYYYYY defense...")...to be made...

There were snow cones to be eaten...

A party-wide-rendition/sing-along of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A."...

Nine of us (if you count Wyatt's introduction) took turns reading the Declaration of Independence...

But most often, we could be found just sharing individual moments with the ones we love...

Such special memories!

Now on to the food...

Ooooooooh the food...

Food... food... FOOD... ;0)

We had such INCREDIBLE eats at this par-tay!

Of course there were bowls of chips, and veggie trays to be found, but who would spend too much time on those (well, I confess, I did!), when there were THESE to be had!?...

A GORGEOUS tray of fruit with a cream-cheese-marshmallow-cream-orange-zest dip, and a perfectly SWEET lemon curd if you should choose!

There were homemade pita chips, and the-best-homemade-hummus-dip-EVER for dipping and such...

We had a GIANT bowl of steamed clams with oodles of melted butter...

And deliciously fried crab cakes (obviously NOT pretty, but man, did they taste GOOD!)...

After such amazing "starters," a hungry stomach couldn't be found in the group, but the clock was telling us it was time to move on to the Main Course! And so we did...

We enjoyed the prettiest Caprese Salad you've ever seen (with a homemade balsamic reduction)!...

And then there was coleslaw, and BBQ baked beans, and pulled pork sliders, and (grass fed) beef bratwurst, (and more appetizers for those of us who had a difficult time advancing past the first course!)...

And fiiiiiinally...there was dessert!...SOOOOOO MUUUUUCH DESSERT! So much so that we decided to eat dessert in phases, lol!

Phase 1:

Festive little mini cupcakes for the kids (eh, 31 years old still counts as "kid" right!?)...

And chocolate covered strawberries!!!...

Phase 2:

Cherry CRUNCH! (would you like yours warmed??? A-La-Mode???)

Phase 3:

Caramel Apple Cheesecake!

Of course as time went on, and people came and went, different dessert phases were reintroduced. Again...and again...and....

The festivities eventually had to come to an end.

Some left sooner than others.

The grand-sons were the first to leave, when they accompanied their Grammy to a fancy-shmancy party at the Rancho Santa Fe Country Club...

...and while most of us stayed LATE...some of us stayed until the end...the VERY end....

Even in these CRAZY political/economic times, I am so happy to be living in this U.S. of A...and feel blessed to celebrate the birth of our better-and-free-er-than-most-any-other-country Nation with the best of friends and family!

(Although my brother...and his girlfriend!...and my older sister...and her family!...were greatly missed!)