Birthdays, Engagement and 4th of July, Oh My!

Yesterday was a busy day, but a fun one! It was my friend Gerald's engagement party, my grandfather and aunt's birthday party, and the 4th of July. Whew! I get tired just thinking about it. Ryan and I started off the morning with a lovely homemade breakfast of Buttermilk Pancakes with a Fresh Peach and Brown Sugar Compote. I have to say that I absolutely love cooking in my new kitchen. It makes everything much more fun when I can spread out and have a little elbow room. And I have to say the results so far have been pretty good. Ryan said that these pancakes were one of the best things I have ever made.

Next up was Gerald and Caity's engagement party held at Gerald's mom's house. It was just a family get together, but Gerald is a lot like family since I have known him for 22 years now. They had a lovely catered BBQ lunch, which was really nice as Caity's parents were in town from New York and BBQ is such a Texas staple. This was my first time meeting Caity, but I knew she would be wonderful because Gerald is a great guy. I am so happy for the two of them!

Aren't they just the sweetest? As you can see, Gerald proposed in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. What a lucky girl! Anyway, the wedding is a couple of years off as they are both working to complete their doctorate degrees, but I am sure the ceremony will be beautiful!

Up next was heading to my parent's house to celebrate my aunt and grandfather's birthdays. We didn't do anything spectacular, but just getting to spend time together was nice. We had Central Market for dinner and I made a from scratch spice cake with cream cheese frosting. No box mixes for this chick and her new amazing kitchen. Everyone agreed it was one of the best cakes they had ever eaten. I know it was true, because my family is a pretty honest bunch.  I was pretty proud of it to say the least. (I will be posting the recipe and pictures soon, so stay tuned.)

The only sad part of the whole day is that my parents neighbor's house caught on fire, no not from fireworks, and was destroyed. Luckily they weren't home at the time, but they had 4 dogs and 1 cat in the home and only 1 dog was rescued. The rest are still missing. They think the animals escaped when the firefighters had to kick down the door to fight the blaze. I'm praying they find those precious animals soon!

On our way home for the night, Ryan and I were able to catch multiple fireworks shows on our drive. We then made it back to our neighborhood park where we had a great seat for the tail end of a local fireworks display. This is one forth of July I won't soon forget!