Fourth of July Fun: carnivals-cakes-friends-fireworks

OK the 4^th of July is one of my most absolute favorite holidays HANDS DOWN! In our house were proud to be Americans, just ask Logan and he’ll tell you with the most confident voice that HES AN AMERICAN! So when the 4^th comes around you better believe were ready to celebrate with carnivals, BBQ’s and Fireworks!

First things first we had to check out one of the carnivals in the area! With Logan now being tall enough to actually ride the fun rides alone we knew hed have a blast! 

Saturday night was filled with rollercoasters, funnel cakes, and moe getting talked out of his money but 3 carnies just to win a robot and a poop emoji…but hey thats what you should expect with going to carnivals right? Its all in good fun! And I mean the look on Logan’s face riding his first rollercoaster solo made it all worth it! There’s just something about carnivals that we love & after Saturdays we cant wait for our Backlot Bash in August!

After that we hit the road Sunday for Michigan to spend the day at our Churchs Camp.  Let me start with saying I love our church family! I love that we make an effort to focus on family & time together.  Each year we all make the drive out to Covert Michigan and spend the entire day together…away from the business of our daily lives, no cell phones, no reception, none of that, just good old fashioned fun! This is something we grew up with in the time before Iphones, snapchat and instagram. Summers were about being with friends, running around in forests, being in the sun, and getting dirty, scratched up, and building memories that weve kept close to our hearts through the years. 

So having this camp give everyone, every generation, the chance to go back to our childhoods and give our kids a chance to see what our childhood summers were all about! I love that we have this space, that our whole community comes together, we get to reconnect, reminisce, and just enjoy good quality fellowship together! 

So HUGE thanks to Philadelphia Romanian Church for all you do and this amazing space you’ve created for our families & community!

Logan had the time of his life Sunday! It was the first time I let him just run loose with his friends and it was such an awesome thing to see, to see him run to his friends with pure excitement sprawled over his whole face, to see him, run through dirt, ask to go exploring, run, play, have fun without electronics (granted he did ask for the phone and we did give in when it was time to wind down and eat something), watching him play with other kids and just having fun. This is what summers about! Its about coming home at the end of the day exhausted and filthy from playing in dirt all day and that’s ok! That’s proof of a great day!  

Now to the actual 4^th of JULY! Its no secret to anyone who knows me I LOVE this holiday and what it stands for and yes we dress up, yes the house has a flag raised in front, yes I go out and specifically buy freedom roses for the house, and yes any treats I make for this day will be themed! 

Putting all that fun stuff a side for a second though the reason I love this day so much is really what it stands for. We live in a country that gives us freedoms to actually live. Yes there are a lot of horrible things happening in the world and in our own country but even with all those things we still are free & this freedom we have is protected by the men and women who make the sacrifice to service daily, to put their lives on the line and risk it all so that we may be safe, that we may have rights, and we can believe what we choose to believe, and stand up for whatever we choose to stand up for. So when it comes to this day its more than celebrating Americas birthday, its about celebrating the men and women who keep us safe and give up their entire lives to do that, we celebrate our heros in the armed forces. Also if you know anything about our family WE LOVED OUR ARMED FORCES! According to Logan they are the truest definition of what an American is!

Now since it is Americas birthday a birthday party is called for & ours consisted of BBQ, great friends, water balloon fights,fireworks & cake! Ive been looking for a good time to make a trifle and this seemed like the most perfect time! What I loved about this recipe is that well its super easy, doesn't take forever, has tons of fruit, and theres no actual baking involved!

 Plus who can resist a pretty & patriotic cake on our country’s birthday?! I also absolutely love how versatile trifles can be! You can literally make a trifle from anything! mixing different berries, different fillings, different cakes there are so many options! Everyone at the BBQ from the kids the grown ups had a scoopful maybe even 2…all I know is there was none left at the end so think its safe to say that it was a successful dessert & it wont be the last time Ill be making it!! So heres the recipe!! Hope you enjoy & I hope you all had a GREAT 4th of July cause we sure did!!! 

INGREDIENTS:

1.5 cups of water

6 tablespoons of sweet condensed milk 

2 boxes of white chocolate pudding mix

12 oz of cool whip 

1 whole angel food cake (cut into cubes) 

2 pints of fresh cut strawberries

2 pint of fresh blueberries 

DIRECTIONS: 

first you wanna start with cutting up your cake into bite sized cubes, once thats done set the cake aside. 

next you're gonna make your filling. 

start with filling a large mixing bowl with 1.5 cups of water. then you're going to mix in 6 tablespoons of sweet condensed milk, you're going to now whisk it all together for about 2 minutes or till it thickens. once it thickens you're going to start folding in your cool whip. 

once thats folded in you’re going to mix in the pudding mix one package at a time. you'll start to see your mixture thicken and once you've got your last pudding pack mixed in you'll see peaks forming, this is when you'll know its well combined. go ahead and lick the spoon! you know you wanna! 

now comes the fun part. you're going to start layering your trifle. take a trifle bowl or a large bowl and start with a layer of cake, a layer of fruit and then pudding  mixture. cake, fruit, pudding…cake, fruit, pudding…all the way to the top. you're going to do finish off your trifle with one last layer of pudding & then decorate the top whichever way your heart desires!  

cover your trifle up & pop it in the fridge for at least an hour before serving & enjoy!!