Catch up....

Long time, no blog. On top of my pictures not wanting to download, I have been thoroughly enjoying my summer by hanging out poolside, going to dinner with our families, getting pedicures (yes, multiple....it has been wonderful!), running bright and early with Rob, and still just settling in.

First up, Fourth of July. We had a wonderful 4th, with my folks and grandparents coming over for appetizers and dinner that night, then Rob and I headed over to our neighbors for their shin-dig. Robby couldn't get over how many fireworks were going off. Having spent a lot of his 4th of July holidays either in Colorado (I guess they don't let you shoot them off there very much...too dry) or traveling for baseball, he has just never seen the way people just shoot them off for hours in the streets. Needless to say, it was fun to watch him just amazed at all of these little kids running around with punks and giggling at the popping sounds made by shooting off lots of bottle rockets. It was also fun to spend some more time with our new neighbors and get to know them a little better. I snapped a few pictures, but was trying to be careful not to take too many. Didn't want to be the creepy new neighbor taking pictures of a bunch of kids she barely knows. :)

This cracked me up. The kiddo had some of those poppers that you can just throw on the ground. Well, the dog must have thought they were treats or something, because he was going crazy over them! He kept trying to snatch them out of the boys hand and then would eat the ones after they popped on the ground. So funny!

The kids spent the day outside making t-shirts and running through the sprinklers (had to make sure the lawns were good and moist before the fireworks extravaganza!). They had a baby pool and one little kid was swimming around in all of his clothes, and when they tried to change him in to dry clothes he was so upset about taking his shirt off they just let him keep it on. He was so cute running around in his sopping wet, way too big, self-decorated 4th of July t-shirt.

 I love the Chinese lanterns...although I quickly realized that instead of admiring the beauty of them as they float off into the sky, the kids simply use them for target practice! They set one free into the sky then instantly start shooting roman candles at it to see if they can hit it. Hey...whatever works!

Some of the little boys in their home made t-shirts.

Now, on to the bathroom update. Now, don't get me wrong, I love the color pink. It has always been one of my favorites....however, I don't like it so much on the walls of my basement bathroom. I have dreams of eventually painting all of the rooms...you know....really putting our own "touch" on things. However, after painting just this one tiny bathroom, I am perfectly ok taking our time doing that. Painting is hard, and exhausting, and this was only one tiny room and my friend Molly did most of the hard stuff! :) I am so so so so blessed to have some awesome friends and Molls is definitely up there at the top. She drove down from Kansas City, on one of her last days off before she started her new job (woo-hoooo!) and just wanted to help me with whatever I needed help with. She is that kind of wonderful. We met in up in Wichita (easier drive for her), I showed her my classroom...then we headed off to grab some lunch, stopped by an estate sale (I'm obsessed with them now), went off to visit my grandma, headed back to Newton, bought some paint, went to McPherson to eat dinner with my momma and her friend Jean (who also happen's to be Molly's boyfriend's mother:)), went to Joe Henry's basketball game, then came home and painted until the wee hours of the night. See what I mean...great friend. :)

Here are the "before" pictures of our very pink bathroom. There is a matching bedroom to this bathroom...but we will tackle that some other day. :)



See...really pink. We ended up painting a light green. We wanted a color that would go well with our brown shower curtain that we already had and something that wouldn't make the room seem to small since it has no windows and is the basement. I think it turned out great! :)

Molls hard at work!



We have some plans for the mirror and the brass fixtures...but for now I'm just happy the pink is gone! :)

Real quick I wanted to share a super easy and quick recipe! Robby and I took dinner over to some friends in Newton who just had a baby and since it has been so hot I wanted a dessert that was cool. I decided to make a fruit pizza but for the life of me couldn't get the cookie dough to spread out easily. I so I decided to borrow from an idea I had seen on pinterest.com. The picture I had seen was chocolate cookie dough used to make "bowls" for ice cream by using cupcake pans. I decided to use a mini cupcake pan because I was worried about the sugar cookie center being too soft to hold the mixture. I ended up coming up with fruit pizza cups! Or Sugar cookie fruit cups...or sugar fruit cups. I don't know what I'm going to call them yet, but they were easy and delicious and pretty! Makes them a winner in my book!

All you need is:

1 (8 oz) brick of cream cheese

Half a regular sized tub of cool whip...I ended up adding a little more later so maybe 5/8 a tub? :)

Sugar Cookie dough

Roll the dough into small 1-2 inch balls then place in the mini cupcake pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes (or whatever the package says).

While they are cooking, whip together the cream cheese and cool whip.

Once you take the cookie cups out of the oven, use your fingers (or I suppose you could use a spoon...I didn't) and indent the cups just a bit to hold the fruit pizza mixture.

Add the mixture, let them cool, then remove them from the tin and garnish with fruits!

See, easy and delicious! Here are some pictures!

That's all the catching up I've got for now! Happy Tuesday, everyone! :)