The 4th is Coming

Where has this month gone?
Do y’all realize that today is the last day of JUNE?!

That means the 4th of July is coming!! And the 4th means fireworks!! Yes, I get just as excited about fireworks as my kids do.

Every year, our old home town (we only live 5-10 mins away in a different town) does their Independence day celebration the weekend before July 4th. So, we celebrated this past weekend.

We made our way to the parade and caught up with a highschool friend of mine (her daughter was in the parade) and my parents.

My momma with my kids, waiting for the parade to start.

Now keep in mind, this is a small town. So, the parade is made up of a variety of farm equipment, local fire and police, various local churches, war re-enacters, and the hillbilly shriners club, etc. It may not sound great and grand, but we love it.

Our county sheriff, Brad Riley.

After the parade finished and the kids collected a nice amount of candy, we headed home to rest up for fireworks later Saturday night.

We headed back to our old home town around 9:45 for the 10pm fireworks. Ray stopped and got the kids slushies on the way, so they had a drink & a show and couldn’t have been more pleased.

To see a snippet of our fireworks show, click {HERE}

Ice Cream in a Bag

Last night it was just ridiculously hot here! So hot that a home cooked meal just wasn’t an option. We headed out to one of our favorite spots…Cookout.

One of the best places in the south to eat

On the way home, we stopped and got the stuff to make ice cream..homemade..in a bag!! When the kids were younger I heard about making ice cream in a freezer bag. I thought it would be pretty cool to try out but, I thought I needed to wait until they were older. I was right. But it was such a fun and neat project to try out.

All you do is fill a gallon size freezer bag {HALF} full of ice. Throw in a {HALF CUP} of rock salt.

Then, in a quart size freezer bag, throw in a {CUP} of heavy cream, {2 TBSP} sugar, and {1/2 TSP} of vanilla. And seal shut.

Once you get the vanilla/cream mixture done and sealed, stick that bag inside the bag of ice and seal the ice bag shut.

Now, SHAKE IT SHAKE IT SHAKE IT! Shake that bag for a good five minutes!
Once you finish your shaking, open the ice bag and pull out the cream bag.
And……

VIOLA!! Homemade ice cream that you can eat straight out of the bag!!!

I hope y’all have as much fun with this one as my kiddos did.

School’s Out for the Summer

June 10, 2014. The last day of school for the ’13-’14 year.

Such a glorious, happy day for my kiddos. They’ve finished out their year of Kindergarten and Second grade. They couldn’t be more excited for summer vacation.

I, on the other hand, go into “oh lord, what’ll I do to keep ’em busy this summer” mode. Now during the day, the kids come to work with me and my momma. Thank you Jesus that our boss allows them to come with us. But I want them to have a good, fun summer after work hours.

It just so happened that the last day of school fell on the same day as the……SCHOOL BUS RACES! Redneck, I know. But it was so much fun to take them kids too. And it was a plus for the kids that their principal was racing one of the buses!!!