Gettin' ready for the 4th!

We attended a fabulous outdoor wedding this past weekend. And when you have an outdoor wedding in Oklahoma, in June, it means one thing! Heat, and the heat index!

As we were seated an attendant handed us a bottle of water and cute fans that had the evenings event printed on them. They were so stinkin cute I had an Aha...moment!

This fourth we are hosting a small little July 4th bash and yes it will be a hot one. So I decided to create our own fans to have.

I started with a couple of text boxes in word and created a menu for one side and copied the first verse of the Star Spangled Banner for the other.

I shrank it just a bit so that when I cut them out and posted them on red card stock the red would show as a trim. I then hot glued a craft stick to the back side and covered it with the Star Spangled Banner. Added a cute polka dotted ribbon and we have some cute custom menu/ fans for our bash! I made 30 fans for $4.73 and about an hour to assemble.

Can't wait to show you what else I am cookin up for the fourth. I let you in on it soon.

Are we collecting JUNK now?

My husband asked as he took a look around our living room last night.

What? I yell from the kitchen as I am cleaning up from dinner.

Are we collecting junk now?

Are you kidding me? These are great "finds" that I have found this past week and I love them.

Oh......long pause from hubs before he flips the channel over to yet another baseball game.

Let me show you what he is talking about.

Meet Richard and Cynthia. Two cute little things I picked up at Goodwill this week for $.90 cents! I didn't have to do one thing to them.

Who could pass up a great bowl(restaurant china) and cute canning jars! Again another purchase form Goodwill for $2.

Ok, I can understand the word "junk" when I first looked at this!
But take a look now! A great little stool for us to use in the bathroom.

Yes, it's another tray. Hard to pass up for $.90 cents.

After a spray paint makeover I think it looks just fine sittin' on our dresser.
Perfect for keys, phone and spare change.

And remember that $10 desk I got? It found it's way into little man's room. He and I found this great chair at a church rummage sale last weekend.

What do men know about "junk" anyway!

Fathers Day..

OK, so it's the Tuesday after Father's Day and I am finally taking the time to write a post. We had a great weekend!

Yard work, visiting the new Lego Store, pedicure's and time with the family. And I didn't even take one picture of any of the dad's!! What a slacker I am becoming!!!

I sprang out of bed at 6am Sunday morning with my heart pounding. See, I had offered , just the night before, to smoke a brisket for Lunch at my in-laws that afternoon. She had asked us to pick up pre-smoked ribs. But Ryan was hungry for my brisket. So we picked one up on the way home Saturday night. By my calculations I needed to get the brisket in the oven at 4am! No problem! I set my alarm and somehow ,in my sleep, turned it off without even waking up. You gotta love that. So at 6am I get the brisket in and have to cook it at a bit higher temp in hopes that I could get it to cook in the 6 hours I needed it to! When cooking a brisket always remember longer is better. Your meat needs to be tender and fall into shreds. We ate it just fine but I knew what could have been.

We headed over to my sisters house later that evening to spend some time with my dad. Enjoying homemade ice cream and cupcakes from our new favorite spot

Cookies -n- Cards!! They are to die for!

The kids enjoyed some slip-n-slide action in the 100* heat!

Baby, It's summertime in Oklahoma!

Oh...Pickles....

We are a family that loves to eat pickles. I would say Gabe likes them the most. He even ventured off and tried a pickle flavored sno cone one day. Let's just say it wasn't a repeat!

So this summer when I came across these family size jars at my local WalMart. I picked one up to share at home. Needless to say we go through a jar like this in about a week. Yes, I know our salt intake is through the roof.

We are a family trying to live up to the motto that is being taught now at school. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! GO GREEN! So I hated to throw away these nice big glass jars.

We are hosting a Fourth of July bash in a few weeks. And of coarse will be serving pickles. So I got my spray paint out and some patriotic ribbon and went to work. Here is what I ended up with.

I plan on slicing another family jar of pickles up and setting this out on the table.

One Red Ripe Strawberry...

It happened we picked our first, and so far only, red ripe strawberry!

Here she is before the pickin'. Notice all her soon to be picked friends.

And the garden finally got it's nice new blanket of alfalfa this weekend.

When you have two kiddos both wanting to pick the first red ripe strawberry. What's a mom to do? Yep, you guessed it! I picked it. Then each took turns carrying it back to the house. Where I used my surgeon like hands to cut the strawberry into exact halves. Thus, insuring that they each had an equal bite of our first red ripe strawberry.

We couldn't help but think of one of our favorite books. The kids and I love The Little Mouse , The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear. If you haven't read it yet check it out this summer.

Lessons Learned...

I started this weekend off with a nice "To Do List" and for the most part we accomplished most of it. But in the process I learned a few things too!

1. Never suggest the family to come with you to look for a swimsuit!
2. Yep, I really asked and they all wanted to come.
3. Try to talk hubby into going to Marshall's first.
4. He suggests the Mall.
5. After much humor from my 4 year old, in the dressing room, I find one.
6. Thinking WOW $80.00 is a lot to spend on tankini. But, it looked good!
7. WOW, WOW, WOW when checking out realize that it is $80 for the top and $80 for the bottom. Husbands pays dumbfounded and we leave.
8. 24 hours later return suit after finding one at Marshall's for $29.99!!!
9. Add some fresh flowers to front flower beds.
10. After planting flowers decide that we need to add a few shrubs and transplant some others.
11. Two hour project turns into 8 hours with sunburn, stink and overworked, out-of-shape muscles.
12. Day two had to use the overworked, out-of-shape, sore body to lay alfalfa hay on garden. Kiddos are begging to take a walk around ENTIRE neighborhood.
13. Realize that 4 year old may have been traumatized by swimsuit fittings! As questions are ongoing.
14. Clean windows and screens. Ahhh.....
15. Note: kids think it's fun to press face, hands and tongue against inside , just cleaned window, why you are cleaning the outside.
16. You scream to stop and they all of a sudden have lost their hearing!
17. Cleaning windows takes twice as long and so does the explaining of why we can not touch them.
18. Sore body awakens at 3am to thunder, lighting and diagonal rain.
19. Can't fall back to sleep realizing that I don't have to get up early to water newly planted flowerbed.
20. Let me know when you want it to rain. I will make sure to wash my windows or car for ya!
21. Oh look it's Monday!!!!

Clean Piggies...Clean House...

The kiddos and I live in our flip flops from April until October! And around our house we like to feel the grass in between our toes. So most of the time my kids feet look like this! Please don't misunderstand me for those children you see out at your store. We DO NOT go barefoot out of our front yard. That's just gross! But if you have kiddos, wearing flip flops, you know how fast their piggies can look like this.

I am annual retentive when it comes to kiddos dirty little feet.

So we keep these in the car and in our laundry room at home.

They know to stop and clean their feet before hitting the carpet. And I enjoy a cleaner floor in return!

Bathroom Redo

Don't we all love looking into other peoples homes? I sure do! Darby from Fly Through My Window has some fabulous restoring and recreating before and afters. I have to say this is the ugliest bathroom I have ever seen!

Orange you glad it's not yours?

I am sure that picture caught your attention!

Can you even imagine!!! Click here to go see what Darby at Fly Through My Window did with it. It's amazing!!!

Boy...Have We "Arrived"!

It was the first weekend we didn't have an athletic event, of some type, to attend. Even though I had to work camp most of the day on Sunday. I was ready to tackle some things around the house.

Friday evening we began taking down Hannah's swing set. I wished I had taken some before and after shots. I think I was just to eager to get it down. It took us about two hours and it was done. Much shorter than the original 8 it took to put up! Sad but sweet we had gotten our 8 years of use out of it.

I can remember thinking why would anyone every put this in their back yard? And I had kids at the time! It has taken me a few years but I have come to realize that and in ground one is not in our near future. So, behold our new best backyard friend.... The Blue Elephant!

The kids LOVE it and have been in it every night this week. And we are loving the complete exhaustion that it brings! So if you are holding back my friends don't! I promise it's the best summer gift to yourself ever. Even if your husband moans about an new obstacle to mow around.
We took Saturday afternoon to run down the road to our local farm.

Driving buy and seeing this everyday.
Hannah and Gabe really wanted to stop and pick some. So we piled in and picked a few pints to make Strawberry Shortcake. You can tell I really thought ahead here. Everyone has flip flops on and coordinating outfits, HA!And I left my camera at home and was forced to use the iphone for some pics. The day did have a happy ending, as we made it just in time to catch Happy Hour at our local Sonic!
The weekend ended with a trip to Nana and Papa's for dinner and to pick up their old washing machine. Mine had decided Friday that it no longer wanted to be a part of our family and moved on. And we were in dire need of some clean towels. The nice thing about it was she had bought the same set as me a few years ago, so it still matched my dryer. Call me cheap but I am trying to justify spending $2,000.00 on a new washer dryer set. I hope that this will extend my purchase for a few more years.


The boys enjoyed some practice swings in Papa's back yard after dinner.

With our rigged up truck with washer and the new blue elephant. I would say we have "arrived "this weekend!

But when we got home everyone enjoyed this beautiful site from our backyard.

I think God is ,by far, is the best artiest I know!

Update...Little Shack of a Shed.

Remember a few days ago when I talked about my neighbor and his annual sale? Well I got to preview it last night and look what I got.

I heart restaurant Buffalo China. I purchased 18 pasta bowls, 6 serving platters, 8 sugar packet holders and 12 oval side bowls.

Anytime I turn an item over and see this I can't help but smile!

Not only is there a million entertaining options for this stuff is timeless and sturdier than I'll get out!

I love old books ,not only to display, but to flip through. I found this family album with so much history. This picture is of a home in Dallas , TX at the turn of the century.

Below shows the families move to Galveston, TX and the construction of their project. The Galveston Beach Seawall.

From the families dress and interior home decor I believe they where very well-to-do.

I picked up a ,never been open, box of large Mason canning jars that will come in handy next Christmas for packaging gifts.

I was going to Hancock's this weekend to pick up three yards of red burlap for a 4th of July bash we are going to throw. Last night I got an entire 54inch roll of red burlap (30 yards) for for $2.00! Yes, I have a gigantic smile on my face!

I have absolutely NO idea where I am going to stick this little black desk. However, I just could not pass it up for $10.00! It may find it's way into the playroom for a coloring desk.

Another old neat music book. I just wished he had had some old cookbooks, my fav!

Little man came running up to me with this saying "look mom Babe". So we had to get it for his Yankee bedroom. I think he can recognize Yankee players better than his 1,2,3's.

A new little 12x12 Frisker paper cutter.

Dad said if I ever see any Shimano fishing rods with oval reels for about $35 to get it. I got this one for $9.00.

I spent 2 hours just digging through boxes ,with my kiddos running wild. I had by big pile and asked good ole Raymond what I owed him. He said $30.00!! Shut up! I loaded my car as fast as I could and went home.Can't wait till next June. You can bet I'll be back!

Foil Art

My kids, and all their friends, love to create foil art at my house.

You can purchase a box of 500 sheets for about $7 at Sam's.

The rules are simple. You may only create your art with the foil sheets and nothing else. No pipe cleaners, markers, tape etc. This really forces them to think about how to mold the foil into the shape that they want.

Here Hannah shows off her princess crown and foil butterfly.

This art project can keep them busy for hours when it's just to hot to play outside.