Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real

(Check out Like Mother, Like Daughter for other amazing posts!)

~Pretty~

Fishing along Fear River in Fort Fisher, NC 

(That's quite a mouthful!)

 ~Happy~

  

For the Fourth, a friend and I made this "red, green?!, and blue" watermelon salad. We got the original idea from watermelon.org, but adapted it ourselves adding fruit necklaces and bracelets. It was such a joy to make and was a big hit at the party.

(note the key!)

~Funny~

I am part of a Catholic young adult frisbee group which meets several times a week. This Tuesday I brought along my camera and was rewarded with some awesome shots. These photos were not taken during a game, but jump-dives like it are not uncommon.

 (As a side note, from Saturday through Tuesday, the group played at least 11 games of ultimate--which, I must say, is a bit much. What is neat, though, is that although we play in the Manassas/Centerville area we get players all the way from Front Royal and Arlington, VA. The group has really been a blessing!)

~Real~

Yesterday was my sister's 26th birthday, and she requested that we have a nice family dinner to celebrate. Her boyfriend (who is an amazing cook) volunteered to make steak while my other sister offered to make all the side dishes. Thus, I was left in charge of the cake. 

As my sister is partial to ice cream cakes, I decided to make the cake with two layers of ice cream sandwiched between three layers of deep dark chocolate cake. The bottom layer of ice cream was Wegmans' cappuccino chip and the top layer was homemade chocolate sherbet (probably the easiest and healthiest ice cream that I've ever made!). I frosted the cake with whipped cream folded into ganache. Here are a few photos:

 
The dinner was really amazing. 

Pre-frosting