Happy 233rd Birthday America!

Mason and his Uncle Mitch

I wanted to try a couple of changes to my pancake recipe and invited Steve and Charlotte up this morning for a breakfast.  They were more than happy to serve as my guinea pigs and found the new pancake recipe to be very tasty.  While I was cleaning up the kitchen the subject of our plans for the 4th came up.  Becks and I did not have any firm plans aside from grilling some kind of meat over hot coals later in the day and Steve said that we could come down to their place to grill.  However, Becks noted that Iris from work could be stopping by to see Mason so instead we decided to cook out at our house later in the day. 

While Becks and I got the house ready to have people over Mason went with Grandma.  Once Becks had dusted and swiffered the floors I swept and mopped the two bathrooms and the kitchen.  I then made the second trip of the day to Winn-Dixie (the first had been that morning for flour) to get some blue cups, red plates and ingredients for Becks to make South Georgia Caviar. 

Mason and his Grandma

 Once the South Georgia Caviar was chilling in the fridge Becks helped me to move the round table underneath the large live oak tree in the backyard.  While I moved the chairs over she spead out a white table cloth and placed an American flag runner on top.  We also got the large wash tub out of the shed and filled it with ice to keep drinks and the watermelon cold.

Steve, Charlotte, Mitch and Mason arrived at around 1:30 p.m.  Steve remembered that he had his iPod dock in his truck and we ran an extension cord from the back of the house to under the tree so we could listen to some tunes.  Steve and Charlotte also brought some hamburger meat, hot dogs, buns and beer. 

Mitch, Steve and Brother Raymond

A little while later Brother Raymond stopped by.  He is the road superintendent and works for Steve.  His family took off for the weekend and he was all alone so he was invited to spend the 4th with us.  Iris and her daughter Sam from Atlanta also came by to visit Mason.  When I asked Iris if she wanted anything to drink she said a glass of wine.  This resulted in me making the 3rd trip of the day to Winn-Dixie. 

It was nice having Iris and Sam over to visit and they headed back to Tallahassee around 4:00 p.m. for their own cookout.  Becks then decided to take a swim with Mason.  He enjoyed being in the water and Becks floated him around on his back as he looked up at the sky. 

Mason and his daddy

Meanwhile, Mitch discovered that I did not have enough charcoal to grill with so I made my 4th and final walk to Winn-Dixie.  I was very glad that we live next door to the grocery store! When two bags of charcoal were secured we lit the fire and put some burgers, hot dogs and Italian sausages on. 

Even though Monticello did not put on a fireworks display I had a great 4th of July sitting under the live oak tree with friends and family!