Red, White and Blue

We are getting ready for our huge annual 4th of July party so I have been checking out some party ideas. Every year we try to add something new. Last year we added snow cones and they were a big hit. This year we purchased a few Uncle Sam and Statue of Liberty party hats and plan on taking photos of people wearing goofy head gear inside large, red, white and blue painted frames (like we did for graduation). We will of course have the gigantic slip & slide and the jumping castle for the kids. I'm also hoping to add some patriotic music this year. If I have any time after I get done doing all of my weeding I might just try a few of these ideas!

Fun table decorations from, The Hostess with the Mostess.

I wish I had a cute red truck to use as a yard centerpiece!

Looks like everyone gets their own pie!

Cute and easy.

Very cute, not so easy! I am a very spatially impaired person at times and the directions for folding these might as well have been in Chinese. If you want to give them a try go to Country Living Magazine.

I could do this!

Spray painted bubble wrap! Noisy fun! Photo from Better Homes and Gardens.

Hope you have a safe and wonderful 4th of July.

Phenomenon

Phenomenon: An unusual fact or occurrence

Okay, so you know when you hear a word that maybe you have never heard before or have seldom heard....and all of a sudden in the ensuing days and weeks you hear or read that word more times than you ever have in your entire life? Are you just more aware of that word for some reason? Did the word cause a memory that in turn causes you to notice it more? Or, is it just a weird phenomenon? (I know, now it will happen with the word phenomenon, just watch)

I took this photo at The Farm Chick's Show in the Kitsch Bitsch booth (sorry, but that's their name) because I thought it was cute and a very creative way to display these vintage swim caps. I haven't thought of or even seen a swim cap since I was in Jr High and had to wear them at our city pool. I remember how so very upsetting it was to go to the pool and possibly see a boy or two and having to wear an ugly swim cap that covered up my lovely locks.

So, today I was perusing blogland and what do I find? Swim caps!! A cute green one on this sweet little girl's head, although she is wearing it all wrong. The hair hanging out would have never been acceptable at the pool.

This floral stunner. Where were these caps when I needed them?


And, thinking way outside of the box, as decorations! Very interesting! Thanks to vivafullhouse for the last three photos. I'll be sure to let you know when the swim cap phenomenon ends for me.

Happy Graduation

We had a big graduation bash in the back yard for Amanda on Sunday afternoon. The weather was perfect, we even got a bit of thunder towards the end! So many friends that have known her since she was little attended and of course her brother and sisters, aunts, grandparents, brother and sister in law and her only nephew, Liam. We ate pasta salads, bread sticks and an enormous amount of cupcakes.

Her brother Trevor, always the photo crasher, and her sister Amber.

Looking smart and beautiful! This photo was actually taken on graduation day.

We borrowed the frame idea from The Farm Chick's
Show and had so much fun with it. This is her very tall youth pastor Matt.


Here we are with the graduate.

With Liam, her sweet nephew and our first grand baby.

Amanda, Bo and Sarah, friends forever.

Wild Weekend

What a weekend! Amanda graduated from High School on Friday night and we were up bright and early, ready for all the shoppers at The Farm Chick's Show on Saturday morning.

Last year when we found out that graduation was on the same weekend as the show all we could do was laugh. But, we did it! The show was amazing as usual. We had some of the sweetest neighbors in the whole show and were glad to meet so many kind customers.

Here we are ready for the crowd!

Amanda was happy that her cute kid's table and chairs went to a good home!

We are already thinking about a fall show, stay tuned!

I will post more show pic's later this week and graduation photos too.

Thanks to all who stopped by Happy Endings this weekend!!

Graduation 2009

She did it! Graduation Day finally happened. I know that saying, where did all the years go, is so clich'e but....REALLY, where did all the years go? You have been a delight to your dad and I from day one and we look forward to watching where God leads you in the future. GONGRATUALTIONS!!

Prayer Flowers

I get the privilege every Sunday of teaching a second grade Bible study class. I love this age group because of their enthusiasm and desire to know God's Word and to understand His character. The world hasn't got a strangle hold on them yet and they still believe what grown- ups tell them! I love to listen to their honest, heart-felt prayers for dads that are serving our country, for strength to obey their parents and for their ill pets. And, as no surprise to most of you, I love the craft time of our lesson! Sunday we made these darling prayer flowers that not only look cute but are a great tool to help teach the daily discipline of prayer.

I printed the verse on mailing labels so they could easily stick them on their flower pots. Second graders have a hard time writing in small spaces so I opted to not have them try to fit the verse on the pot. We punched out flowers and wrote a day of the week on each one. I made sure we had some fine point sharpies for that process. We then glued them on pop sickle sticks.

After we had the flowers complete we spent some time thinking of 7 people, one for each day of the week, that we could pray for and we then wrote one name on each stem (stick). I put a hunk of floral foam in each cup and we planted our prayer flowers. We topped them off with some

paper shreds for the dirt.

The Lord will hear when I call to Him.

Psalm 4:3

Summer

I admit that one of the reasons I love summer is because it creates more room for me to decorate! I love creating fun and comfortable outdoor spaces. When we built our house we knew we wanted a porch that was right off the main living space. We wanted it to be an extension of the house, another room that we could use in the spring, summer and fall. We are so glad we made that decision. We love to eat meals on the porch, watch the summer storms pass by and do our Bible studies while watching God's Glory all around. Here are a few photos of summer at my house.

Petunias, can't have summer without them.

This chair found at a yard sale for $40.00 was going to the Farm Chick's Show but last week it won my heart and gets to stay!

Snowballs in summer!

I am trying out these daisies this summer for Amanda because she gets tired of my petunia obsession.

More petunias...and every girl should have a pair of these, polka-dot rain boots for the garden. Happy summer!