Barbecue, Bubbles, and Ice Cream Cake

For the first time in weeks, I put my business plans aside and actually enjoyed an entire weekend unplugged. Here are 10 happy highlights from an eventful weekend:

1. My little sister Alli, 10 years my junior, returned home from an 18-month LDS mission in Australia.

2. She reunited with the nine nieces and nephews she desperately missed while she was gone. Everyone—except for the diminutive Alli—was significantly taller. (I told Alli she needs to buy this t-shirt from NoiseBot.com.)

3. We accidentally left Ruby (110-pound mastiff for those of you who don't follow this blog regularly) alone in the house for 8 hours, and the poor thing just couldn't hold it that long, so she deposited a mastiff-sized urine spot in our spare bedroom, rendering the entire upper floor of the house uninhabitable. She has truly never done this before. Not ever. (Not pictured.)

4. I spent 6 hours steam cleaning all of the carpet in the house, which didn't help at all at first. The aroma didn't subside until about 24 hours later. And I think Odorzout by No Stink Inc., which has the best company name ever, can be thanked for the urine-free smell now in our home! (Not pictured.)

5. We invited my three brothers, two sisters-in-law, one sister, and their various offspring over for a barbecue. Half of the party showed up wearing orange.

6. Faces got messy, which didn't stop them from being utterly adorable.

6. There were Dora bubbles and glitter batons (thanks, dollar store!) for the girls...

7. ...and foam swords and bubbles for the boys. (My brothers discovered that it is possible to cut bubbles in half with the swords, and we suspect they had as much fun with the toys as the kids did.)

8. There was a little bit of pouting...

9. ...and a lot of bubble blowing...

10. ...and some homemade ice cream cake with red sprinkles on top, my favorite summer dessert recipe. It's super easy! Click here for the recipe and, as I just discovered, an instructional video showing you how to make it.

How was your weekend?

p.s. Half of the above photos were taken by my talented in-house photographer, Mr. Travis Lucas, and the other half were taken by me. Bet you can't tell which are mine. :-)