Summer Time and the Living is Easy....

We are embracing summer with all we have.  The weather outside might not always agree with our sunny outlook, but we are pretending it does.  To kick off June, we invited over some friends for an afternoon of Settlers of Catan and Dancing.  To be more specific Mr C and three of the kids played Catan (an intense game if ever I saw one) and Miss M and Miss A and their friend C were busy creating new dance moves in the backyard, basement, and bedrooms. Music was not always involved as some of the music was heard only in their heads.

It was the best kind of Summer Day.

The girls made up some homemade summer time treats for the afternoon.  Homemade Lemonade the Old Fashioned way with a simple sugar mix first and fresh squeezed lemon from an entire bag of lemons.  It was the perfect mix of tart and sweet and reminded me of those afternoons on my grandparents front porch when my Grandpa D would make his own Lemonade and then put a bit of sugar on the remaining lemon rinds and offer them to me for an extra kick of tart.

Thankfully, I knew that the this one big pitcher of Lemonade would not survive the afternoon so I quietly poured my husband a tall glass and put in the back of the fridge.  Figured the bread winner in the family needs a little taste of summer too!

To snack on, the girls made Ann's Famous Cookies in honor of my mentor who went to heaven sixteen years ago this week.  Growing up, there was always a container of these cookies in the pantry at the O House and I love that I can past this tradition on with my own kids.  The cookies are super easy and yummy and there have been times when the entire batch is gone within a few days; who knew that today we'd make a new record and the entire batch would be gone that afternoon.

Of course, I hid a small bag of cookies for my husband thinking that he'd never forgive me if he heard about the cookies and didn't get a chance to eat one.

All in all this was a perfect start to Summer and a great day with friends.

Ann's Famous Cookies Recipe

Ritz Crackers
Peanut Butter
Chocolate Almond Bark

Spread peanut butter between two ritz crackers.  Make as many as you want and then set aside.  
Melt Chocolate Almond Bark either in double boiler or microwave.
Dip crackers into bark and place on waxed paper.
Be prepared for them to disappear.