4th of July 2023

We began preparing for our 4th of July festivities a few days in advance this year. I have been waiting months to make a specific Salt and Straw ice cream recipe - caramel corn. There were some doubters in the family. This recipe requires a few actual cobs of corn to create the essence of corn in the ice cream. Making this ice cream was a labor of love. I started on Saturday by boiling my corn, milk, sugar, and salt mixture to create the essence of corn. I also made the vanilla caramel that would go in the ice cream. Then on Sunday we put it all together and churned our caramel corn ice cream. It proved the doubters wrong - this was one of our best batches of ice cream. 

On Monday Skylee and Anna came over to help Alison bake a berry pie. They are good helpers and they love baking with Alison. Anna was particularly excited to try everything. She even just about stuck a 1/4 teaspoon of salt in her mouth, but fortunately, Alison intervened before that happened. I was also making a batch of potato salad and Skylee was kind enough to chop up three pounds of potatoes for me. She also enjoyed peeling the boiled eggs with me. By the end of the night, the kitchen was a mess, but we had a beautiful pie, a giant pan of potato salad, and two very happy nieces. 

When I was growing up the 4th of July was one of my favorite holidays. That was because my grandma Sue would throw a big water party during the day. Then in the evening, we would have a barbecue and then light off a firework show. My grandma Sue still throws that party every year. For many years Alison and I are traveling on the 4th of July and can't make it, but when we are in town we like to go. This year we invited Kristin and her girls to come with us. I knew Skylee and Anna would love the water party. 

Before we left for the party Skylee and Anna had a surprise for us. They spent the morning putting together a 4th of July parade in three acts. The first act consisted of Anna dressed up in a princess outfit with long gloves and a crown sitting on a blanket. Skylee would pull the blanket, which became their float. Anna would wave, blow kisses, and throw out flowers and candy. It was marvelous. The second act consisted of the kids retracing the parade route this time with musical instruments. Skylee had a drum made out of a box and Anna had a handheld toy piano. They were a marching band. In the third and final act, Anna used Skylee's karaoke microphone to sing, "Party in the U.S.A." It was quite the production. 

Once the parade was over we filled up some water balloons to take the water party. I bought some rapid-fill water balloons and it was remarkable how easy they were to fill up. It took a couple of minutes to fill around a hundred balloons. Then we headed to my grandparent's house. We were the first ones there so we helped my grandma get everything set up. This party has grown over the years and it is now quite the production. My grandma has multiple blow-up water slides and pools, dozens of water guns, and she also had water balloons. It makes for a pretty epic water party. The kids loved it and so did I. We spent a couple of hours at the party. It took a little bit, but once some other people arrived the kids got really into the water fight. I was really into it too. I ended up on the opposite side of the fight from my grandma and I soaked her. I had a trick where I would throw one water balloon high and while she was catching that one would throw another one that would soak her. It was all in the name of fun. We had a great time at the water party. 

After the party, we took the girls back to their house. They spent the rest of the day with their dad. So he came and picked them up. Alison and I stopped by our house in the afternoon. There was some additional progress. They finished the tilework in our basement bathroom so the tile is basically done. While we were there we went on a walk around Daybreak Lake. 

Then we came back to Blake and Debbie's for a 4th of July barbecue. Blake, Debbie, Aleene, Jake, Meg, and Kristin were all there. I smoked beef short ribs for dinner, and we also had the potato salad Skylee and I made. Aleene made deviled eggs for an appetizer and Debbie made a green salad. We also cut up a watermelon. It was a good barbecue. For dessert, we had the berry pie and the caramel corn ice cream, both of which were hits. We laughed and enjoyed the evening together. It was an excellent 4th of July.