Wrapping up the summer festivities

Hi there everyone!

I actually wish I could wrap up this Summer, bottle it, and save it for a rainy day.

It’s been a great one.  Simple, no fancy vacations, just a lot of time with family and friends.

We started off with our family vacation going home to Buffalo.

That was the highlight of the summer and it went by way too fast.

We did a weekend trip here and there, and our last one was up in Blowing Rock, NC to see the Highland games.

Also been to a few concerts this Summer.  Elton John, Def Leppard, Kiss and now next week Keith Urban.  I been a rockin fool!

As for the kids, Alex our older son has had lots of band commitments seeing he is Drum major this year.

Alex also had an online summer class, and he worked at Walgreens a lot in between.  Oh, and he also tutored Math for a friend this summer.

This will be his last year in High School, sadly!

Jack was busy being the gypsy that he is. Friend to friends, pools and he just came home from a week long summer camp.

{Jacks the tall kid on the end pretty much surrounded by all the girls}

Today is the first day back at school.  What will I do?

I think catch up on house work, perhaps find my creativity again.  I feel like I really slacked off this summer.  But heck, I was suppose to.  I enjoyed the family and did what I felt like doing.

No pressures that’s for sure.  Takes the fun out of it.

There’s a lot of behind the scenes pressures here y’all don’t know about. But I can tell you, it can put a lot of pressure on a regular ole gal like myself.  Let me add, this is pressure I bring on myself, no one else is to blame:)

  I write this blog and share because I want to. It is indeed my job, but my first and foremost priority is our family..

Always.

Sorry, I got a bit off track here, but I wanted you to know that from my heart.

 Back to Summer fun…

This past week could not have ended the summer festivities more memorable.

Probably the best of all.

Back in the day, when we first moved to the Carolina’s I met a friend at the park.  It was a beautiful Fall like day and I had taken the boys after school.

In walks another Mom with two boys, just about the same age as my boys.

{Collage of the then and Now}

I immediately gravitated to her because we were new in the area and had not made too many friends yet.

That all changed quickly.  However, this Mom in particular was a very fast and instant connection.

Our boys hit it off and so did we.  In fact, Elke’s younger son remembers Jack had onion rings and offered him one.  I guess it’s the little things kids remember.

 From there our friendship grew, and our families spent a lot of quality time together. Our boys went from house to house on the weekends.  We would host dinner gatherings and they in turn would do the same.  Always something fun was planned with their family.

Sadly, it was only for three years.  They were from Germany, and had to relocate back to their Country.

It was a very sad time for all of us and we have not seen them since.  They have been gone now for 5 years.

That was up until this past week, they came to America for a family vacation.

Time never changed us, nor

never changed the kids, except they all got really tall and even cuter.

As you can see my husband was pretty excited to have his buddy back too.

Elke and I caught up on a lot in life.  Very interesting to hear about their Country and their way of life. I always learn so much!

They also enjoyed the American watermelon beer we had.  It’s so good and refreshing.  Only seasonal though so you may miss out now.

We fired up the pizza oven and made some really cool pizza’s.  This one was everyone’s favorite.

It’s pizza topped with cheese and a balsamic glaze that I simply drizzle all over it.  Has to be the glaze though.  You can find that in with the other balsamics.

It’s really great and I recommend you trying it.  You can make Pizza on the grill too even if you don’t have a pizza oven.

We had our other close buddy Hernan over, who recently remarried and I shared his gorgeous Garden wedding.  When our German friends left 5 years ago, little Celeste here was just born.

Now you can see she’s a big girl now.  And she sure LOVES watermelon.

Hernan’s other child Xavi was also a big part of the gathering.

These three boys were pretty much inseparable when they were young.

The weather was perfection.  Mid 80’s and barely any humidity.

By evening, the fire and tiki torches were lit and bellies were full.

 

 

 Jan and Alex typical teenagers now,not thrilled about the photo op, and probably quite full from all the pizza eating.

I also made sun dried tomatoes with basil,

portabello mushroom

bacon pizza’s, we had quite the variety.

The very best was saved for last.

Nutella Pizza!

That about wraps up our summer.

Bittersweet and I am thankful for the time we got to spend with Elke and her family. I am actually thankful for the entire summer.  

Cheers, til next time!

Thanks for stopping over today.

If your not  a regular I hope to see you back again.

Brace yourself, Fall is coming and I LOVE it, so you will be seeing lots of  fun happenings around here.

XO

I made this Recipe for friendship for you to Print and frame and give to someone special.

Friendship recipe print here.