What a fun July 4th this year. There are too many photos so I've put together a web album instead of uploading all of them on here (see below). We did some fireworks on the 3rd in our backyard to kick off the celebrations. Michael already knew what the big ones were from the Rochesterfest activity we went to on his birthday but had fun with the sparklers and little snakes. He has asked me several times since the fourth if we could go outside and do fireworks. When I was planting a few plants in the backyard the other day he went over to the side of the street where Dan and I had set them off. I looked up and saw him sitting on the curb by himself. Too cute. Rochester has fireworks over Silver Lake close to downtown. We rode our bikes to beat the traffic (it takes about 5-10 minutes) and were completely surprised at how many people were out. Had no idea so many people lived here in Rochester- we'll we've never seen that many people out since we've been here. It was a little crowed, but we found a nice spot to pull our our blanket, which rode with Michael in his bike tote and enjoy the fireworks. We came home, enjoyed some cake and did some of our own fireworks in the street to the back of our house. Michael kept saying, "more, more, more." He loved it. I think he's now finally forgotten about fireworks- but does mention them we we talk about camping and he thinks of the campfire. Calls the fire, fireworks now.
(Click on the pictures to enlarge)
I saw a recipe for this jello cake in our Rochester local newspaper and decided to make it for the 4th. I thought it seemed pretty festive being red and white and all and Michael loves blueberries so I thought I'd top it with that. Ended up putting on more strawberries than blueberries in the end (because the blueberries were still frozen). You can't see the inside, but it is swirled with jello. :) So in case you want to try it one day, I included the recipe in this post. This is also one cake that I have made that Dan really liked- it is super moist and nice for the hot summer months. I did find that it doesn't keep in the fridge very long so eat it within a day or two. I used raspberry soda instead of strawberry it called for and didn't put all of the topping on because it seemed like it was going to overflow the edges of my pan. Let me know if you ever make it!Strawberry Jello Cake
Ingredients:
*Box of yellow cake mix
*2 (3oz.) boxes of strawberry Jello
*1 can (12oz.) strawberry soda
*1 box (3oz.) instant vanilla pudding mix
*1 1/2 cups milk
*Carton of Cool Whip
Directions:
Cake- Mix up your yellow cake mixture and bake according to the directions on the box in a 9x13 cake pan. Let it cool 20 minutes and then poke holes into it with a knife to allow for all the liquid to work into the cake.
Take 2 small (3oz.) boxes of strawberry jello and mix with 1 1/2 cups of boiling water. Add a can of strawberry soda and pour over the cake.
Cake Topping- In a bowl, combine 1 box of instant vanilla pudding mix and add 1 1/2 cups of milk. Mix until thick. Fold in a medium carton of cool whip into the pudding mix. Spread over the cake and refrigerate at least 8 hours before serving.
(I didn't prepare enough ahead of time and we only refrigerated it for like 4 hrs and it was still great).
