Happy Independence Day!!!

I hope everyone has a happy and safe fourth of July!

I'll be back online Wednesday!

Offering Hospitality

Guess who is one of the new staff writers over at Offering Hospitality? ME!!! I'm so excited to learn and share about true biblical hospitality over there. I will be doing a few posts a month for them including a monthly recipe swap, which will begin on July 7th. Click the button to the left to check that out when it starts up. You can visit Offering Hospitality's blog here.

Woodland Park Zoo

Today we went to the Woodland Park Zoo with some of our friends and we had a great time. The weather was great today with the sun shinning and just a little breeze. My friend has a large van so we were able to all ride together, which was fantastic.

This guy was just hanging out by the picnic area eating everyone's dropped food. He was literally close enough to eat out of my hand. I had to fight every urge to pick him up! LOL

Joshua's second favorite lizard: The Komodo Dragon

(his first favorite is the bearded dragon)

We went into one of the bird exhibits where you can purchase a feeding stick that the birds will land on and eat off of. It was a big hit!

My friends daughter was able to get one of these Cockatiels (?) to land on hers and Joshua spent the whole time trying to get the Macaw to land on his, but it would just bite off all the seeds and stay on it's branch.

I just love Zaccheaus and all his goofy expressions!

All in all it was a great day and the boys are already planning their next trip. LOL!

Welcome Summer!

Not only was yesterday the first day of summer, but June 21 is also Mary's birthday! With Josh off on his camping trip and the kids having a dentist appointment that morning I knew I wasn't going to get to go see her on her birthday. Since Ben (Josh's brother/Mary's dad) was on the camping trip as well, Trish and the girls came up here to celebrate Mary and Gabby's (on June 17) birthdays with us! Here's what I threw together kind of last minute to honor them.

I had already purchased their gifts through out the year and had them all wrapped for when I saw them next and for the cakes I headed to a local discount grocer and got a organic chocolate cake mix and reduced sugar frosting (for a healthier option) and the pink one is funfetti (best boxed cake ever!) that I decorated with canned frosting and food coloring spray. The base is my pampered chef stoneware wrapped in cellophane to look a little prettier. I just love how it turned out!

The chocolate looked great too, although my photography doesn't do it much justice.

The girls loved their gifts and we finished off the night with pizza and movies.

How did you spend your first day of summer? Did you blog about it? Link up your post here