Cake and a puppet show

This weekend, Brenna helped me make a cake. She got to pick out the flavor of the cake and the frosting (white and lemon) and then helped get it ready. We decided to use our new pan that can be used in the microwave - to keep from heating up the house and it was fun. I learned some new lessons about the microwave cake - it needed to cool in the pan for longer than I allowed it - we lost quite a bit of the frosting unfortunately. But, Brenna had fun and that's what matters. She didn't really want to try it afterward, she wanted candy, not cake. Go figure.

Then, we went to a birthday party for blog friend Jason! It was at the puppet theatre, so it was Brenna's first puppet show! She got to make her own brown bag puppets, decorate a cute little hard hat (it was a boy party), watch a puppet show, touch one of the puppets, eat some snacks/cake, and play pin the tail on the donkey (a blow up version!) She had a great time too!

Show Low 4th of July

As far back as I can remember, I have linked the 4th of July with the annual Show Low parade and fireworks. My family always lived close enough to the parade route that we could walk with our lawn chairs and watch the horses, firetrucks, cheerleaders, politicians and the Shriners in their little cars. Since the 4th has not fallen on a weekend for awhile - we haven't been to the parade for awhile either! This year, we were able to take a trip up north to celebrate Independence Day - Show Low style and we had a great time! We started the day bright (well, dark) and early, avoided lots of traffic and made it into town before the parade started. Luckily, due to some excellent planning (not on my part) we had reserved spaces on the parade route and had great seats. Brenna was decked out in her "July outfit" as she called it and enjoyed the parade with Gramma and Papaw Pearson and friends. She got lots of candy, loved the princesses on the horses, and covered her ears for the firetrucks. Unfortunately, there were no Shriner's cars. Daddy was working hard helping Pepaw and Grandma, so he didn't join us, but see below....

After the parade, we went to our family-friend's house for some hot dogs, homemade ice cream and fun! Brenna loved playing with the other kids and running through the sprinkler. We got to visit with lots of friends and LOVED the beautiful weather. What a nice vacation from the hot weather we are used to. We didn't make it to the fireworks - we were way too tired. The last time she saw fireworks, she was scared of them anyway, so maybe next year!

We then made our way to Grandma and Pepaw's house where Brenna got to help daddy in the backhoe - she thought that was pretty cool! She also got to play with their puppy, Brownie, who she loves. We enjoyed some quality time with them and got some free babysitting too =). Justin also had a mini class reunion with some old highschool classmates, where we enjoyed more nice weather, good food and visiting.

It was a really great, busy weekend in some beautiful weather, and fun times with family and friends - a great way to celebrate life in America.