happy 4th!

happy fourth everybody! i made a few goodies for our cookout w/hubs' family tonight...

homemade key lime pie

and red white and blue meringues! I got the swiss meringue recipe f/m martha stewart's cookie cookbook and used used her technique for the peppermint swirl meringues...you brush stripes of red (and blue in my case) gel food coloring on opposite sides of your piping bag to make the stripes. my bag and tip were a bit too small so i just made swirls for most of them. well, when i took them over to my sister-in-law's house this kids saw them and asked "is that toothpaste?" it cracked me up! they kept telling each other that they had eaten toothpaste and it was really good! they even used it in a little skit that they put on for us. needless to say, the meringues were gone by the time we had to go!

the plan was to swim and get butch in the pool again, this time for a video. she was all ready...


the kids swam for a little bit while we were there but it was pretty cold and we decided not to get in. i don't really think she was disappointed. after we ate dinner it started pouring rain. we tried to wait it out for a while before deciding that it was not going to let up enough for us to go light our fireworks, so we should just go ahead and try it in the rain. we sat under the carport while hubs and his sister and brother-in-law took turns running out in the rain with umbrellas and lighting them off. we did about ten before it really started pouring and the lighter stopped working. butch freaked out at first and slipped her leash and we had to chase her around the yard but she finally calmed down and cuddled up w/her "cousins" a few of whom took turns putting pebbles on her back saying that "she needed rocks because she loves them." it was quite adorable.


now she's exhausted and resting her little head.

hope everyone else had a great holiday!