Independence Day

We had what I hope will be our 1st annual 4th of July BBQ.  We originally had no plans, but I was so excited to have Lincoln watch fireworks for the first time we decided to throw a BBQ.  We wanted to keep it small for the first year to see how it went so we just had our families and a couple friends.  We had a mellow evening and it was wonderful to celebrate our independence and enjoy some delicious food.  The weather was beautiful and the company was great.  

   

   

The fireworks were fun, but because it takes so long to get dark and the kids were getting very tired we did them while it was still pretty light out.  Lincoln liked the fireworks, but really got excited about the sparklers.  Both the boys wanted to wear their ear muffs because some of them were annoyingly loud!  They were cracking us up as they played and interacted together.  They were constantly copying one another.     

 My friend Amy (Party Cakes By Amy) made a delicious cake.  It was vanilla cake with vanilla cream and raspberry filling.  

My mom told me about some decadent Oreo truffles that someone from her work made for National Oreo Day.  Nearly immediately I got onto Pinterest to search for a recipe to try.  I found one and they were a sweet treat and were very festive for the occasion as well.  The recipe came from http://sarahkoller.com/?p=1345. They are basically just Oreo cookies ground up in a food processor (I used my coffee grinder) mixed with cream cheese.  You then roll them into a ball, put them in the refrigerator to set then dip them into chocolate.  I did regular Oreos and Golden Oreos.  They were very rich, but I think they were a hit.  

By the end of the night the kids were exhausted...