Fourth of July Festivities

*writing this blog post while wearing rain boots, sitting under an umbrella & humming rain, rain go away*

We kicked off our Fourth of July morning with our favorite tradition, red velvet pancakes! (Recipe here.) These are the most amazing pancakes of all time. They take entirely too long to make, so I don't make them very often, BUT they are worth it.

It rained ALL day, which was such a bummer since it meant that the parade, live music & all other festivities for the day were cancelled. We were so bummed since we had such a fun time last year, not to mention we had a house full of guests. So we had no other choice but to have a good ol' fashioned garage party! :) We moved the cars out, set up lawn chairs, music, beer pong tables & filled up a family sized inflatable swimming pool right in the middle of it all.

I can only imagine what our neighbors think of us :)

Floral Swimsuit. Red Ruffle Swimsuit Bottoms.

 I used the popcorn recipe from Easter to inspire a festive snack for the Fourth, popcorn, chex mix, pretzels, melted white almond bark & sprinkles. This is SO yummy & addicting! You could really make this for any holiday & probably add anything sweet that you wanted. Candy canes, candy corn, corn dogs... you know.

When we finally got a break from the rain, we were able to go outside for fireworks & sparklers!

Harper was so obsessed with the sparklers, it was the CUTEST thing of all time!
 

And seriously, how cute is this outfit?! Crew & Lu totally nailed it with this festive little ensemble! 

I seriously hope it still fits next year! ;)

Then it started raining again, Harper also loved that & thought it was so fun to get wet.

 

 To top off the night, we made a festive s'mores bar! Our neighbors gave us the heads up that the best way to eat them is with Ritz crackers instead of graham crackers. We also added strawberries, raspberries, blueberries & peanut butter cups. Yum yum DOUBLE YUM.

Our night was MADE when we got to see an entire fireworks show from our driveway.

Red, White & BOOM!!

I hope you all had a MAGICAL Fourth of July weekend!

Oh, and might I just mention, it's officially Fall in my mind as of July 5th. Who's with me?! :)