happy birthday america / happy birthday shanna

dan's sister amy invited us over for a little girl's get together last week to celebrate her mom's birthday (it's on july 5th). i loved all the americana decorations, place settings, hot tamales and the sparklers in her homemade banana cake! she served us a delicious salad with greens, grapefruit sections, mandarin oranges, and avocado along with my foccacia bread. we drank cranberry juice topped with sparkling water.

we chatted, laughed and ate the afternoon away. amy is a professor at a local university and always gives excellent book suggestions. after adjourning to her family room, we perused her bookshelves. i especially appreciated that so many of her books are underlined. she sent me home with some good non-fiction; about alice by calvin trillin (which i'm loving) and what now? by ann patchett.

happy fourth of july! happy birthday shanna.


tune in this week for camping photos and a new ice cream recipe.