the joy of summer evenings

During the long, hot summer days I most look forward to the evenings. I love getting creative with barbecue dinners while sitting outside enjoying the cooled-down nights. For quite some time I've been wanting to get mason jars to use as lemonade glasses and finally got around to it this week. As I was looking at another blog I noticed she tied cute ribbon around her jars and couldn't resist doing the same. I made a garlic-basil grilled chicken with salsa (recipe courtesy of Sunset magazine), homemade ultimate guacamole, grilled vegetables, and baked beans. Of course Kobe was on lookout to make sure no strangers intruded on our dinner (not that we would mind...) and Scooter was chewing on a little something he found in the backyard. Once the sun sets it's time to turn on the pretty lights and eat home-made ice cream for dessert. I can't wait to make more yummy food for the fourth tomorrow! I am currently working on the cupcakes. One day I want to have a neighborhood block party like The Sandlot.

I would like to host more dinner parties so please tell me if you'd like to join :)