Scenes from the 4th

The 4th of July is honestly my favorite day of the year.

Our celebrations always start on July 2nd because that is my dad's birthday.
For his birthday dessert, I made 2 patriotic pies for him.
This blueberry & cherry pie:
And, this apple pie with star crust:

The day of the 4th is busy for us because we have a packed day, starting with a French Toast breakfast with 50 other people at our friends house.

After the party, we headed down to the parade in our town.
My favorite float? The Trader Joe's float!

Love all the red, white & blue.

My friend Kelly & I:

Waiting to spot Uncle Jason in the parade......
There he is!

After the parade, it was time to get ready for our 4th of July Party.

My parents throw a 4th of July Party every year but a few days before the 4th, we found out it was going to be 100 degrees on the 4th, we decided to switch the party to our house so that people could swim.

I am always up for hosting a party :)
I did buy these flags this year to make our pool fence look a little more festive.
You can never have enough flags!

Seriously, I just love this holiday!

Here is my 4th of July party table:

My older sister made the appetizers.....7 layer dip,

Spinach Dip,

and, of course Corn Dip!

I made some dipped pretzels, aka "Sparklers"

Of course, I had to make some cupcake toppers for the party:

I made Julie's puffs for the occasion...yum!

And, festive dipped strawberries.

Yumm....homemade popsicles:
At the party we swam:

and socialized:
While my dad, Jimmy manned the grill:

The 4th of July party is also referred to as the "Sausage Fest" because my dad grills up tons of sausage. Here are this year's Sausages & some labels I whipped up the night of July 3rd:

Not only is there Sausage, but there is Tri Tip:
(We don't have any vegetarians in this family!)

There were salads galore....

This is my favorite Broccoli Salad...it has Bacon in it. Yum!

Gotta love the Red, White & Purple Potato Salad.

Patriotic Rice Krispy treats (that I forgot to hand out to all the kids, which is a good thing because I added too many Rice Krispys, so they weren't as soft as they should have been)
Then it was time to head to my parents for my dad's Homemade Ice Cream & to watch the fireworks.

Jimmy's homemade ice cream is the best. Each year he makes cookies & cream, reeses pb cup (or butterfinger) and then he makes a new, 3rd flavor.

The 2011 flavor was pistachio (because my sister's husband Jason loves that flavor).
It was really good!

My sister Elyse, the official radio holder for the fireworks.

It was another great 4th of July & we had so much fun hosting my parents party.
Can't wait to do it all again next year!
Hope you had a great 4th!