4th of July

Our church sits on Hwy 90 which goes along the coast here in Biloxi. Every year they have a casual picnic on the front lawn and then watch the fireworks. Someone bring a grill and we all bring our own burgers and something to share. It's very relaxed and lots of fun. This year we had perfect weather: not too hot and just enough wind to keep the mosquitoes at bay.

The only problem is that there is no fence so I had to keep an eagle eye on our busy little man. There were several others more than willing to help me so we got some good fellowship in too.

Samuel joined in on the football game. He took off with the ball a few times but for the most part handed it off when necessary.

Have you noticed the red left cheek? He fell on the front porch Saturday morning. I gave him some help with Photoshop in the first picture but decided to leave it in the rest. He is never without some kind of injury so we might as well record it! He looks like he lost a bad fight right now with two bruises, a strawberry, a scratch and a bug bite all on his face.

People set off fireworks all along the beach and the city does a show on Deer Island. It was so cool to see fireworks going off as far as you could see. Samuel wasn't scared at all. He just kept saying "Oh, Wow, oh, wow, oh wow."

Dad grilling some hamburgers

I took this picture right when we got to the picnic. My lens fogged over because the camera had just come from the air conditioning. It was too cute to delete so I just made it B&W.

Samuel has most everyone at church wrapped around his little finger. There's no telling how many cookies, bites of ice cream and sips of sweet tea were smuggled his way. Ah well, Independence Day only comes once a year. And the older ladies thoroughly enjoyed his entertaining antics.

Bridget over at Bake at 350 gave me the idea for these cookies. She's a very creative baker. I love her sugar cookie recipe. It doesn't need any chilling time! She makes tons of cute cookies. I've tried to do her royal icing a few times but it requires a lot of time and makes a huge mess. Too much to squeeze into naptime.

These babies didn't need any icing though. They were cute all on their own!

The only problem is you have to cut the cookies out very close together because you only get one shot at the stripes. Rolling it out the second time produces a tie-dye effect. Still cute in it's own way though!

This idea would work for so many occasions. I hope I get to host a baby shower soon. Wouldn't these be adorable using a nursery theme?