The past week has been filled with happy and sad times. Celebrations of both life and death. Last week we celebrated Andrew’s birthday! He couldn’t decide on what type of cake he wanted for his birthday. He likes citrus, and so I talked him into a lemon cake with a cream cheese butter cream frosting. It turned out to be the perfect choice too, if I must say so! 😉 I generally do not like citrus desserts, but I actually loved this cake! The lemon is fresh and not overpowering. I will definitely be making this cake again! You can find the recipe  of this delicious Lemon Layer Cake at Sally’s Baking Addiction site. I love her cake recipes!

We also celebrated the Birthday of our Country, and our freedom! With as many problems as we have as a country, I am still very proud to be an American! I love my home land, and I know we can all work together to make it an even greater place. Do you see the shirt and shorts Samuel is wearing in the picture below? That outfit used to be David’s!!! Sniff, Sniff! I’m pretty sure I have a picture of David wearing it somewhere, and now I have one of Samuel too! We had a great fourth, with in-laws and friends. We had Bbq and all the fixins’! We also had home made ice cream! For me, home made ice cream is a must for the fourth of July. Some of my fondest memories growing up are of our fourth of July celebrations we had as a family, and the home made ice cream. It was churned by hand then, but I happen to have an electric ice cream machine now. I recommend it! The last several times I have made ice cream I have used a recipe that uses cream, milk, sugar, and vanilla. It’s from food network called Old Time Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe. It’s super easy. While it taste great (I mean, come on, it’s ice cream!), it’s not the ice cream I remember from my childhood. I asked my mom about it, and while she doesn’t remember the recipe, she does recall that it had an egg base. While the egg base recipes are much more complex, I might have to break down and give it a whirl. It may be worth it to find that ice cream taste I remember.

We stayed up late watching fire works. Our neighbors put on such an amazing display! It’s nice to be able to sit on the back porch and watch! This year, when it got really loud, Emma watched from inside going from window to window, David sat on the porch and watched with Andrew’s sound muting headphones on, and Samuel sat on my lap in amazement and as content as could be! 🙂

In the midst of these celebrations was the passing of my Aunt Pam. (She was my Dad’s older sister.) She left this world all too soon due to cancer. She was an amazing person! Growing up I remember thinking how I wanted to be like her. I still do! Not only was she my aunt, she was my Sunday school teacher for a few years, and my piano teacher for a short period. She loved teaching, and she loved the Bible. Aunt Pam’s passion and excitement for the stories of the Bible was contagious! I learned so much from her!

Aunt Pam was fun to be around. I remember spending the night with my cousins, (what amazingly fun times we used to have!) and playing games and watching movies. She was so much fun to watch a movie with! Anyone who knows my aunt knows what I mean! 🙂

Aunt Pam had so much faith! She lived that faith everyday. Because of her faith she had an internal happiness. A joy which was evident to everyone she met. She will be missed!

Love and Peace,

PK