Born in the USA: 2009

As some of you gentle readers may remember, my birthday is July 4th. This year, I came to Kansas to celebrate with my family and it became an all day extravaganza. On Friday, Mother of Ken and I set the table for my birthday dinner and did a lot of cooking and baking. Here is the table, all ready to go:

Mother of Ken's Kitchen Aid mixer is a beast. My Papaw bought this mixer probably 25 years ago for $15 at a restaurant auction. It was covered in grease, but he knew that it was worth way more than $15. Last Friday, it mixed a double batch of icebox cookies for us:

We also made ginger cookies:

I don't really like cake that much, so my birthday dessert was icebox and ginger cookies and homemade vanilla ice cream. Here are the nicely arranged cookies:

On Saturday, we had a big breakfast of blueberry coffee cake and then headed out to have lunch with Grambi and Papaw and Cousin of Ken and Boyfriend of Cousin of Ken. Since we were gone for most of the day, we did a lot of preparation on Friday for Saturday night's dinner. Dinner began with Mother of Ken's bruschetta with a drizzle of balsamic reduction, served with hard lemonade because it was so hot outside. Grandmother and Uncle of Ken had never tried hard lemonade before and they really liked it. Uncle of Ken knocked back two before dinner.



For dinner, we had grilled Kansas City strip steaks, potato salad, and corn roasted on the grill. Mmmmmm.....

After dinner, we had to rush outside to try this hot air balloon that Father of Ken bought at the fireworks stand where he volunteered (providing us with many hilarious stories). Here I am with him trying to get this thing to work:

We tried for about five minutes, but we were never able to get it going. My favorite part was when Father of Ken was using a candle to try to heat up the inside of the balloon and he spilled wax on his leg, started screaming "Sh*%, sh*%!" I started laughing at him, and the dog came bounding off of the porch toward us going as fast as he could. Chaos ensued. Finally, we gave up on it and went inside for dessert.

Once it got a little darker, Uncle of Ken and I went out to light the snakes, which are some of my favorites. I also like snap pops. Father of Ken will not allow me to light snakes on the sidewalk "because they leave black spots that look like crap." So, Uncle of Ken dug a brick out of the garden border and I used that so that Father of Ken's precious sidewalk was not marred.

Mother and Father of Ken pondering the box of fireworks:

Father of Ken lighting the first one:

Father of Ken posing with one of the really good ones:

A fountain:

Father of Ken shooting a Roman Candle that we got for free with our purchase. These things freak me out and I can't believe that people shoot them at each other.

More of Father of Ken's excellent fireworks display:

Grandmother of Ken--this was her 91st Fourth of July celebration!

More fountains:

And on that note, the extravaganza was over. I had lots of birthday wishes via telephone, text message, and Facebook in addition to being able to see most of my family on my birthday, which hasn't happened in at least five years, so it was a great day. Thanks everyone!