Celebrating the Fourth of July

Yesterday was a super fun and crazy busy day!  I began my morning by making an apple pie.  My husband Ray had convinced me to sign up for our community's Pie Contest about a month ago.  At the time, my son Cole was super excited and wanted to help...let's just say his enthusiasm had cooled off by the time it actually came time to make a pie.

Confession:  I don't like pie.  I have no idea what a good pie should taste like.  If I am going to ingest a large amount of calories give me chocolate! 

We hosted a bbq and invited several families over.  Before they arrived, I decided to use my new blue jars as cups...and I decided that they needed labels to tell each guest's apart.   I used my new Lawn Fawn Puffy Star Dies (http://www.lawnfawn.com/products/puffy-star-stackables) and cut out a bunch of stars out of scraps of scrapbooking paper.  I punched a hole and tied them on with some baker's twine...super easy and not only was it cute, it was functional!

I enjoyed a burger off the grill and some watermelon and then grabbed my pie and went with my friend Lisa to drop of our pies for the contest.  Before leaving, I poked these toppers I made the day before into the pie (also using my new favorite dies from Lawn Fawn).  I am not a baker, but I am a paper crafter...gotta show my skills somehow!

Here's a pic with Cole and our (my?) finished apple pie:

So, my pie was leaky...it leaked all over me as we drove.  We got to Lisa's place to pick up her pie and I drained my pie...yes, that is the technical term!  We carried our pies down to the festival and then headed back home to enjoy some more food!

Here's a pic of Lisa with her pie she named "Purple Mountain Majesty Pie":

A couple hours later we headed back to the festival and went to the stage area to await the announcement of the winners of the Pie Contest.  There was a band playing while we waited.  Here's a pic of Cole with his friend...too cute!

I wasn't nervous, but Lisa was getting anxious to hear the results.  Here's a pic we took right before they announced the winners:

Clearly she cared way more than I did and that's probably why she won 2nd place for the seasonal fruits category!!!  Yay!  She looked so super cute on stage with her medal!

I was so busy taking pics of her that I wasn't even listening when the announced the winners of apple pie category...no worries because I didn't win!   They did mention that one of the judges was from the Rolling Stones Magazine which is kinda cool.

All our friends from our bbq joined us at the festival and we sat around people watching until it was time for fireworks.  We had even more friends join us and it ended up being the perfect night!

Here we are watching the fireworks:

We arrived home to a messy home, but it didn't matter.  We had a great time enjoying our family and friends.  I think I fell asleep before my head even hit my pillow!