July 4th Picnic 2009

As promised....here are our July 4th photos. We set up our picnic in the porch again. It will be our tradition. We haven't even taken our windows off in the porch(screen porch). It's so breezy and comfy without even having to take them off(the door has a screen and the air conditioning runs into the porch too). So it stays pretty cool in the area even with the windows on. Makes it easier than getting the porch all wet too. I like that! I decorated the porch about the same as last year...only we set up our table in a different spot. Different spot for the buffet table too. We had two less people to fit at the table this year. So we were able to make the most of the room. The table cloth is different...I use my strawberry table linen for the occasion. It really matched the plates I bought last year. I still used my caddy buckets for the silverware and use my big candle holders for the centerpiece down the center of the table. I even reused my little flags in each bucket to give the place a bit of patriotic twist. God Bless America!!!
Here a cute pix of Aaron in his 4th of July getup. Isn't he cute? I like this photo of him.


Just more of the table setting. I used my lanterns I bought last year in every window. I had many I bought last year for Judy's and Dave's 50th party. So I was able to put one in every window. I bought some extra little 4 of July theme candles next to the lanterns...just to bring so more patriotic theme to the porch.


Father and Son photo shoot....don't they look so patriotic? LOL




Here some random photos of us................I bought a skirt from Jcpenney again this year. I felt like I needed to go to a barn dance. LOL! I took a photo below flairing out the skirt. I was just going to wear the one I got last year. However, Jcpenney had more outfits from their line American Living. So I picked out another skirt.

Muffin begging for the steak at the table.............this is her rightful place...in the begging mode. The food was really the same as passed years. Just picnic type foods: Salads, Veggie Tray, chips and dips, Baked Beans, Deviled Eggs, Steaks etc.....Here some views of the food on the buffet table.

Here is a series of photos of Aaron saying: NO MORE PICTURES! LOL

Our tradition is a little different...instead of fighting the crowds to go see fireworks....we opt to stay home and have a bonfire. We light the candles in our porch and watch the neighbors set off fireworks in their backyards. LOL! It makes for a less stressful time of rushing to get somewhere. Plus, our city has fireworks in July at their festival...which is usually sometime after the 4th weekend. So here are some photos of the porch in the evening and our time at the bonfire. Aaron enjoyed riding his bike while we chit chatted at the fire pit. LOL

Another 4th of July over! We had a good relaxing time!

1st July 4th in Porch

Happy late 4th of July!

Luckily, I had pre-planned my 4th weeks in advance and had all this picnic BBQ ready to go. When we got home from Mom's Funeral....we had a few days to prepare for 4th of July. I had bought plastic plates and glasses for the picnic instead of using paper(which is what we always used in the past). This was our first party in the porch. We usually eat in our gazebo Screen tent and sweat up a storm. Not this year.....we ate in the porch. Probably will make that our tradition now. I removed all the furniture and we set up the porch for eating. I used Doug's Grandma's Table we inherited.............and decorated it with 4th of July fun stuff. I got the plates from Lands End(Sears). I bought green gingham plates(one blue one above) and blue damask dessert plates. I got the drinking cups from Kohl's. I than got some wine goblets from CUB FOODS. Every store had big discount on these plastic type dinnerware. It was really affordable and fun. I did splurge on the green Colander and Pail from Pottery Barn. They were having a sale on their outdoor entertaining too...........and just happen to have the green left. I used the colander for Fruit for each place setting and the Pail for every one's silverware and napkins. I also used the Lands End(Sears) cloth napkins for place mats and cornered them on the table. They had that cute scallop edging on them and were too cute to use for napkins. They were big enough to use for place mats. So I used a basic White table cloth and set the napkins ontop the cloth. FYI: pottery barn was completely out of their colanders and pails after I purchased, BUT to my dismay TARGET had similar mini colanders for way way cheaper than Pottery Barn. I would have brought mine back to PB and got the Target ones and saved money BUT it was a FINAL sale on PB discounted items. Bummer! Target didn't have green but they had red, white and blue(the blue was light blue color). They were in their dollar item bins and they were even pretty picked over but run to the store....their could be some left???

I chose to use Blue and Green color scheme(instead of red white blue). That way I could bring in some Green since the porch is green. I added the flags and stars to add the Patriotic colors into the scheme.

I decided to put a flag in every pail. My table was loaded...................ha! Not to worry tho as I set up a buffet style table for the eats(food).

This was before the food was out: we had chips, Bob's famous tuna salad, veggie tray,baked beans, lemonade and ice cubes. I bought a cute bucket from Kohl's that you put ice cubes in and scoop the ice out with a metal scoop. That worked really cool, otherwise we would just grab what we had in the cooler. This was much easier and convenient. I also bought the veggie tray from Kohl's too. They had such good deals on their outdoor patio stuff. The blue asian candle urns are from Target(also a place that had mucho sales). The condiment tray was purchased from Target too. I really was able to mix and match alot of things from different stores.
Here it is loaded with food:

Closeup:
I really liked these little stars I found at Target:
I bought a two pack and strung them along the buffet table. I found the outdoor/indoor table cloth at Kohl's for dirt cheap. I like these table linens too/they don't wrinkle at all!!!

Doug was the grill master...he set up a little area on the unfinished deck. He did a great job on the grilling. We had steaks, burgers and corn on the Cobb.

I was the hostess.........I was loving this new porch eating set up.......so close to the kitchen and easy access to all the food.

I think I looked patriotic with my red white and blue outfit(bought at JcPenney, part of the American Living Brand).

I also set up my bistro table in the house next to the porch door/for extra table space and we used this for the cake.
It was Sylvia's (a friend of the family)birthday. celebration too.

My Sister Francine was in town to visit too and celebrated the 4th with us. She looks real patriotic too.

Someone else was patriotic too:

Aaron did he's traditional thing on the 4th.......hang out in his swimming pool. Maybe someday will have a in ground pool(Wink, Wink)!

This year we bought a fire pit and chairs for the 4th. We were going to buy them anyway for our patio we haven't made yet. Soon we should have a pavered patio to put them onto permanently. For now we just threw them out on the lawn and enjoyed. We really enjoyed the fire pit/as it less messy then having the one in the ground. The fire is above you so it doesn't smoke you out so much/as the ground one did.

Muffin and Dave enjoying the porch too!