Not to be outdone by last year's ponies...

In case you were wondering, Grandma and Papa's house is still the coolest place to visit in the summertime. Remember last year's pony parade in the backyard? Well once again, my sister Sarah and her family are visiting from France for 2 weeks, and once again, my mom is putting on quite a party for the kids. Today, her and my Grams hired the famed Columbus "Turtle Lady" who puts on shows for libraries, schools, and groups of kids all over town, to come over and give a private show for the kids. I don't even know her name because she introduced herself as 'The Turtle Lady', but she was amazing. She brought tons of turtles, snakes, geckos, and frogs for the kids to pet, poke at, and feed. She was animated, funny, and astoundingly kept 7 toddlers, and a slew of older kids captivated in their seats while she taught them about her reptiles. It was so precious to watch the kid's faces as they watched her with the animals. What a special treat today was. Can't wait to see what Grandma plans for next summer :)

I hope you like zucchini bread...

As per the usual this time of year, our garden is producing a plethora of larger than life zucchini faster than we can eat them. And I only planted one seedling this season, because I learned last year that planting 4 only makes sense if you are trying to supply the local grocery store. Eli is my little gardening buddy and his favorite part is picking the veggies when they're ready... and sometimes when they aren't but he just can't help himself. I love to watch him pop the warm cherry tomatoes straight into his mouth and see the juices dripping off his chin. 

And now I have to scour the Internet for 100 recipes involving zucchini. Zucchini pancakes anyone?

Do you want fries with that?

Is what my parents always said we'd be saying for a living if we didn't study hard and go to college. Its kind of ironic now that they're the ones who've purchased a food concession business and are traveling the state serving fried food to America's finest. Friday was Red, White & Boom, Columbus' annual fireworks spectacular downtown. So John and I as well as Chris and Rebecca and some friends of ours from our Bible study all signed up to work the event with my parents. My parents own two trailers. One serves ice-cream, frozen chocolate bananas, and root-beer floats. The other serves fried delights and lemon shake-ups. Its a big operation. Rebecca and I lucked out getting assigned to the cold trailer with my mom while the boys were sweating it out with the hot grease of the fried one. It was a perfect day for the event and the crowds were were out in full force. Nothing says God Bless America quite like 2 year-olds walking around swigging 20oz of Mountain Dew, large teethless women hanging out of teeny-tiny bikini tops, and more kids on leashes than you'd typically see at the animal shelter.  We enjoyed a lot of laughs in our trailer and met a lot of great people who will be burned in my memory for a long time. We served food from 11am until 11:30pm and people were still trying to buy things from us as we were cleaning up.  And I have to give proper kudos to my parents for the massive amount of work that goes into preparing for and cleaning up from for these events. I don't think my dad went to bed that night until close to 4am. It is not for the faint of heart.  Enjoy a few pictures from the day. 

Rebecca and I early morning getting things ready

My dad and John, on the job since 6:15am

Frozen chocolate banana? Hand-dipped before your eyes, might I add.

The ice-cream trailer, just killing time

My cute mom. Doesn't she fit the part perfectly?

John and Chris peeling onions pre-event. Someone's gotta do the dirty work

The fried-trailer crew. These guys were slammed for hours and did an awesome job

Happy Independence Day!!