i wasn’t planning on being home for the holiday, but since the bike trip was a flop thanks to my accident, i was. this is halie’s first year having a swimming pool so we had to take advantage of it, well i already do like once a week, but we had yet to have a party there, so 4th of july being a hot summertime thing worked out perfect. and yes that was probably a run on sentence just now.

it was one of those nice parties where everyone kind of brought a friend of a friend and, since we’re all grownups, we could mingle and hang out and it wasn’t weird at all. a good mix of high school friends and work buddies and everyone’s bf.

makenzie made “layer dip”. yesthatsawaytogetaroudnothavingtomakeitexactly”7″layersandstillsoundcool. (and yes phil walk i did that no spaces thing for you)

this cake looks a little homely, but it tasted good and went with the red-white-and-blue theme. oh and below, just some chocolate coved oreos and cheesecake pretzels i made. pinterest WIN. (unlike our red-white-and-blue drink layering, btw that only works on the internet)

how did we coordinate outfits and not even plan it? it must be that same kind of thing where like girls get their periods in sync. in other words – magic.

we made friends with “clay” the grill guy (or more like the guy who was at the grill whose name was clay) and from there mooched off his already hot grill to make some veggie dogs.

and this picture, well sorry mak and niv for posting this not-so-attractive picture of y’all, but come on, it’s sort of endearing. or at least tony’s face says so.