Lovely Long Weekend

Happy belated 4th of July!

I took these cupcakes to a cookout we went to on Friday. I thought the wannabe flag arrangement was a cool idea until I started seeing other festive desserts online, like this cake, that put my little cupcakes to shame. (I'm definitely saving the flag cake idea for next year!) I made half the yellow cupcake recipe and half the chocolate cupcake recipe from Marjorie Johnson's cookbook, and I used this buttercream, which may be my favorite so far.

After Friday's cookout, Shaun and I slept late on Saturday - we were both pretty sore from playing wiffle ball and using muscles we don't normally use. We felt old...sad. So Saturday was a pretty lazy day, and we grilled burgers for dinner and went to fireworks with Shaun's parents. We also watched the NYC and Boston fireworks that I'd recorded, because to me the 4th isn't complete without hearing The Stars & Stripes Forever! Oh, and you know what - after my little complaining session last week we actually got two whole nice days in a row - Saturday and Sunday! Today was pretty nice too but of course we were stuck inside.

I think our flowers have enjoyed the rain though. This is our second summer in our townhouse and we're still getting garden surprises. I swear, last year we only had one lily plant and the flowers were orange, but now, as you can see, lots of yellow flowers!

These have also grown a lot since last year - I'm ashamed to admit I haven't been able to figure out what they're called. But we like them!

And I have a reason to be in a good mood besides the weather and pretty flowers - on Wednesday afternoon, Shaun and I are leaving for our long-awaited trip to Minnesota! We're flying out with our friend Rich (a die-hard Red Sox fan), and John (a die-hard Yankees fan) and his girlfriend Sarah are meeting us there, and we're all going to a Twins game on Friday. Hopefully no fights will break out. Just kidding. Rich and Sarah are first-time MN visitors, and John has only visited for one day in November, so I am excited to show them around the Twin Cities at what I think is the best time of year to be there. I'm excited to see my family too, of course! And a couple of short work weeks out of the deal doesn't hurt either.