I have always enjoyed hosting little get togethers but all too often time gets away, parties don’t get planned and general busyness fills up those calendar boxes. A girl’s weekend trip to the Belong Tour this summer reminded me that I get to choose how I want to use my time and spending time in community needed to fill a few more of my boxes. So when I scrolled down my instagram feed and saw this .

Once September arrives we like to host a little backyard party for the neighborhood.  It’s a great time to reconnect and catch up on summer adventures.  Everyone brings a little something to snack on and here’s what we served up. This festive recipe for ladybug crackers called for black paste food coloring that I couldn’t find so super small diced olives had to work for the spots.  Luckily Iitu is the master of splicing .

When our German daughter, Jule was looking for a creative way to ask her boyfriend to the Sadies Dance, I suggested trying out our pancake pen.  Apparently pancakes aren’t normal breakfast fare in Germany and the second Jule tried them she fell in love.  So both her and her boyfriend have eaten this popular breakfast meal for lunch and dinner numerous times the past couple months. I tried out some general shapes first to .