tank top outside food party july four 2012!

our fourth of july was just a big fat day of awesome. exactly how a fourth of july should be. i had the day off from work and we just filled the day with good food, outside eating, friends, and casualness. if you were not good food, outside eating, friendly, or casual then you were not invited. oregon played nice and brought the sun.

first things first, we slept in til about 7. on a normal weekday i'm up at 5 so on days when i can just snuggle in til 7 and wake up with some sun coming in the window, it always feels like a special occasion. we read a little in bed and then got up to have breakfast and make patriotic ice cream sandwiches!

if you are ever in a pinch and need a quickie/awesome patriotic treat feel free to steal this idea. we made standard chocolate chip cookies, except with red and blue m&ms (we got the dark chocolate ones and here is my review --> they are really good). Otto helped me sort out the red and blue ones and i even let him eat a few at 9 in the morning because hey, holiday. once the cookies were baked and cooled, we scooped vanilla bean ice cream to make sandwiches and then rolled the edges in patriotic sprinkles. easy and cute as heck and you heard the ingredients right? word to your mother, those were some good ass ice cream sandwiches!

around 11 we headed over to some friends' back deck for a nice brunch. Loretta took her shirt off and i was sporting some trashy tattoos and we agreed that between the two of us we equalled one awesome all-american :)

after brunch it was home for nap time. while Ot and Et snoozed i was wine cubing and took my bathroom self portrait because hey, holiday.

then onto the park for a picnic dinner in the grass. we were thinking of taking the kids out to watch the real fireworks but they don't even start until 10pm. too late for small toeheads who are prone to fatigue tantrums! instead we burned some cruddy sparklers (like the worst sparklers of all time) in the back yard. which Otto loved. and asleep by 9, myself included.

hope your July 4s were equally chill and full of good food and smiles. or for my more northern friends, that your Canada days rocked!

ps. Otto loved his tank top so much that he cried this morning because we didn't have another one for him to wear today. we ended up rolling up the sleeves on his t-shirt ala AC Slater so that he could have that "cool tank look" (items in quotes = irony) so i'm kind of excited to see if this is going to be Rolled Sleeve TShirt Summer 2012. do your kids have questionable fashion choices like this? do you go with it? i kind of love it but oof the rolled sleeves made me cringe, i won't lie!