Happy 5th of July

If you invite me over, I'll bring you treats because I love to bake for other people.

Yesterday, I baked some of these:

then some of these:

and then some of these:



(If you haven't tried making Denae's Blog Brownies yet, you should. And if you haven't put the leftovers in the fridge to enjoy later, what is wrong with you?)

First, I brought the cupcakes to the Happy Hartman Home for a great lunchtime BBQ with a lot of the Primary children and other church friends. They were so nice to host and the weather held (in Seattle, it almost always rains on the 4th.) Fun party!

Later, I brought the lemon bars (which should have come out of the oven 3 minutes earlier) and the brownies out to Boni's family's home which is on a lake south of where I live. The food was awesome and so was the company. We had a great time just socializing all afternoon. We watched the fireworks from the beach until it was just about to rain. We timed our return to the house perfectly and made it back inside just before a short downpour. The rain didn't last long and we stood out on the deck and watched the most amazing view of seemingly professional fireworks all across the lake. You almost didn't know where to look most of the time because there were that many!

A few random updates:

• I really don't enjoy fireworks unless they're the big, up-in-the-sky type. I completely despise those stupid bees -- you know, the ones that just fly up in the air and you really have no idea where they're going because they might go sideways and land in your eye and blind you? Yeah, I hate those.
• I made the mistake of buying strawberry Carmex. Disgusting.
• I went to the Post Office today! I still have a bunch of stuff to mail but I'm making progress, got the right boxes, etc. I should have everything all mailed by Monday night.
• SYTYCD? I love that show so much! I loved the opening group number on Thursday to that Money song from Cabaret.
• Boni & I made cards today - so fun! Making cards is so therapeutic and relaxing. Love it.