Christmas in July...

 Around these parts, it sure feels like Christmas every July as most of us celebrate birthdays.  My family usually gets together around the fourth to throw our "Birthday Bonanza", where we celebrate all our summer birthdays. This year it was actually on the fourth so we had fireworks too!  This year's  display was ridiculous!  The Grand finale was utterly insane, I don't think they can ever top it.

    For years I have wanted to put bunting up on my porch for summer.  I cringe every time I price them out and never end up buying them.  This year I decided to make something instead.  I came up with a pennant style bunting made from bandanas (I tea-stained the white ones).  Not as good as traditional bunting, but it made me feel festive.

    I also went ahead and tried Martha's firework cookies out.  They looked great, but my royal frosting would not dry! I didn't care for the taste of the icing either, but the cookie was good.  Next time, I will use my usual recipe for royal icing, given to me 20 years ago by my friend Reva.

     We also made Wolfie's birthday cake! His favorite animal at the zoo is a yellow dotted stingray, so the cake is featuring a dotted ray.

 Olivia seemed to like her first parade and fireworks. She was really enjoying herself!

We all enjoyed having my brothers in town, but Wolf and Vlad REALLY enjoyed it!

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!