Happy 4th of July!

My beautiful fruit salad: chop everything in bite size pieces, and leave grapes whole. Place in covered bowled over night in the refrigerator, and serve cold. Very nice chilled summer dish.

The best breakfast ever! French toast with a little butter and some light syrup, with a cup of coffee. Such an easy breakfast to prepare.

The fireworks show.


This was just a small amount of the food that was brought to the party. Such great, yummy treats!

The BBQ tasted so good. I tried my husbands steak, it just melted in my mouth...no need to chew.

I set my alarm early, for a holiday, 7:15 am. Of course, I hit snooze a couple of times. I began my day by fueling up with some water, a half of a banana, and some extra fruit salad I had made for our Fourth of July festivities. I headed out the door for my short run this morning of 2.25 miles. When I came back , I popped in a Denise Austin's Pilates DVD and set up my yoga mat for a 25 minute session. I love practicing pilates or yoga after a nice run. It really stretches my muscles out. Afterwards, I finished my workout with a mini 15 minute free weights. It was so nice to work my arms after stretching them for 25 minutes.

After I showered and cleaned up, Jason made me a great breakfast using Cascade Prides' 100% whole wheat stone bread, a couple of eggs and soy milk to make french toast. This is my favorite breakfast, and I could eat a million pieces. I was strong, and only had 3 pieces. I love this bread. I wasn't always a big fan of whole wheat bread, but I decided that I wanted to start to eat better, and this was a start. This bread has nice flavor, but not too sweet. I enjoyed my favorite breakfast with a cup of coffee with some creamer.

After a couple of hours flying by, we got ready to go to our friends' house for the 4th of July fireworks show and BBQ. This is a long tradition and we always have a blast. There is always so much food and drinks. This year, my weakness was the chocolate chip cookies. I had too many to count, I guess it's a good thing that I am working out tomorrow. I brought my fruit salad and some beer.

The fruit salad was made up of 1 full personal watermelon (using a melon baller), 1/2 of a honeydew melon (using a melon baller), 1 lb. strawberries (chopped to bite size pieces), 2 kiwi (peeled, and diced), 1 banana (chopped), and 1 1/2 lbs of purple grapes. I mixed everything together and let it sit overnight in the fridge. I like to make sure the juices from all the fruit soaks together. The salad was a big hit, but not as big as the usual side I bring; the 7 layer dip. That is usually devoured within a few hours. I wanted something semi healthy that I could eat this year.

Our gracious host always barbecues for us, and the guests bring the sides and fireworks. As I mentioned before, there is always way too much food, drinks and fireworks. It is always great to see everyone. This year, I had 1 hot dog in a white bun with mustard (which is my best friend in this type of situation), 2 beers, too many chocolate chip cookies and a couple handfuls of M&M's.

I hope everyone had a great Fourth. Tell me what is your least favorite firework? Mine is the Piccolo Pete's, too loud.