Family Reunion/4th of July

Jay's family has a family reunion the week of the 4th every year since 1930. Everyone gets together and camps all week. They have wienie roasts, and BBQ'a and fish frys. Everyone goes swimming and catches up with each other. It all accumulates on July 4th with fireworks and a bonfire. Jay and I finally were able to go this time around, our first time going in like 6 years! We've missed it. Jay missed it so much that he told me, everyday, that we are definitely camping next year.

Here's Jay with some of his family.

Papa Joe and Memaw (Jay's grandparents), Sherri (Jay's mom), Jay, Andy (Jay's uncle), Mike (uncle), Kathy (aunt) and Johnny (uncle)

These two were missing from the above photo because they were swimming. Jay's brother Waylie and his little sister Crystal.

Jay and Waylie.

Crystal and Jay, showing off their fingernails.

Me. It was so damn hot.

He looks so small!

On the evening of July 4th, we got to see a fireworks show!! It was so awesome!

Then there was a bonfire.

Jay looks kinda pissed in this picture because right before this, I was trying to get his picture really close to the fire and a whole bunch of fire works went off, towards us.....I thought it was fun, Jay not so much. And then right after this picture someone jumped over the fire, twice, fun crazy night!

4th of July Cupcakes!!

It's not too late to bake these for your 4th of July get together!! Especially if you want to WOW people!

I used the vanilla cupcake recipe and the vanilla buttercream recipe from joyofbaking.com. Then I divided the batter into three bowls and added blue, and red food coloring to two of the bowls. I used the gel food coloring but anything will do. Be prepared to use a lot of red coloring!

I did the same thing for the icing as I did for the batter, divide into three bowls then add red and blue coloring to two of the bowls. After you mix the icing, to get the swirlyness, divide the icing into three different sections in the pastry bag. I used a butter knife to get the icing into the pastry bag. I also used a giant french style tip. The icing will swirl when you pipe it! I topped with 4th of July sprinkles and red and blue pop rocks.

I made these yesterday afternoon and by 10:00 last night the pop rocks had melted (sadness) I still say use them because they're really cool, but just throw them on there right before you serve these babies!

And this is what they look cut in half! Pretty nifty!

Flashback Friday.

My sister and I, dressed in our nautical best!

I hope everyone has a really fun Fourth of July!!!