Happy Father's Day

Today we celebrate all the great dad's in the world and I wanted to take the time to say Happy Father's Day to the guy that my kids call dad.

(He's the one hiding behind the pole)

Yes, he's always good for a laugh.

 

We don't spend a lot of money on elaborate gifts for Father's Day, or even Mother's Day  for that matter; we just like to spend the day together, doing something fun as a family.

The kids usually get their dad a card and they make some kind of gift for him.  This year, this is what we made.

 

He loves Reece's Pieces so we thought this would be very fitting.

I also cooked lunch and made a dessert to have for later.

The recipe I made today is Strawberry Colada Parfait Pie.  It's made using Tastefully Simple's Strawberry Colada Parfait Mix.

 

 

All you do is mix the contents of Packet 1 from the box with 8 oz cream cheese.  Once that is mixed fold in 1 tub of whipped topping.

 

Spread that mixture into a graham cracker crust and sprinkle the contents of Packet 2 from the box over the top.

 

Cut some strawberries up into slices.

 

Put the strawberries on top and you have a delicious dessert ready to go.

I think it took a total of about 20 minutes to make and I didn't have to turn on the oven in this heat. 

 

I hope my hubby loves it and has a very happy father's day!!

 

 

An All You inspired 4th of July wreathe

 

I just received my current issue of my All You magazine.  As I was reading through it, I came across this cute 4th of July wreathe that I knew I just had to make.

It was super easy and my daughter and I completed it in one afternoon.

We gathered all our supplies which included:

80 wooden clothespins

acrylic red, white and blue paint

a 10" embroidery hoop

star stickers

paintbrushes

 

We started by painting 30 of the clothespins red and white and painting 20 of the clothespins blue.

 

We left the clothespins to dry for a short time then came back and did an extra coat of paint on the fronts of each one.

 

Turning my daughter loose with paint always ends up with something like this...

a pen painted blue, paint all over your work surface and on any pieces of trash that we may have.

 

Once all the pins are dry, start by clipping the blue pins onto the embroidery hoop.  They should be in the upper left hand side of the hoop and take up about 1/4 of the space.

 

You then start putting on the red and white pins alternately around the rest of the hoop.  You can do them in groups of 4 or 5 depending on your hoop size.

 

Once you get the red and white pins on, you can add some star stickers to the blue pins.

 

And you end up with this cute wreathe.  I didn't put a poly coating over the pins so mine will be hanging inside.

The photo in the magazine also had a red bow hot glued to the bottom.  I chose not to add one but could always go back and do that if I wanted.

It was a super easy craft and like I said, we had it done in one afternoon.  

Softball Tournament in Birmingham, AL

We just got back from a weekend trip to Birmingham to watch my daughter play softball.  It's amazing to me how softball has changed when I was a girl.  I can tell you right now that my family never traveled out of state to let me play in a tournament.  I also didn't play in high school like my daughter does, but even if I did; I don't envision my parents loading up the car to drive us out of state.  

Since the tournament was going to be spread over a few days and we wouldn't be playing all day, I decided to do a little research and find some sightseeing things we could do while there.

Note:  I must warn you up front that this post contains LOTS of pictures.  I will try to keep the "talking" to a minimum because of that.

I love to take pictures of the landscape while driving in the car.

I'm always amazed that the pictures come out and aren't all blurry.

 

Is that black clouds that I see in the distance?

 

Of course, and here comes the rain.

 

And even more rain.

It was at this point that we learned our game to be played on this day was cancelled.  We were only about 30 minutes from the park.  Well, we shall not let this day go to waste so we checked into the hotel and then went out for some sightseeing.

 

Coming into downtown Birmingham.  I had never been to Birmingham before and I was surprised how small it seemed to me.  Maybe because I'm used to the hugeness of Atlanta.

 

Our first stop was the Birmingham Art Museum.   Admission was free and so was parking.  Its was a win-win!

 

I would have thought that my kids would have been old enough and even mature enough to handle a museum.  They were not.  They were not interested in seeing anything and Victoria (the oldest on this trip) even set off one of the alarms to some artwork.  I was thoroughly embarrassed.

Some of my girlfriends and I have been getting together and painting.  Our last 2 projects have been of flowers.  I wonder if we are ready for something like this?  Also, I don't know why all my pictures appear to be so crooked.  Must have been the floor!!

 

I thought this cow creamer was really neat.  

 

This teapot was from the 1700's.

I took a picture of this painting of this church because it reminded me of the church I grew up in.

 

  

The Asian display was my favorite.  I love all the colors and design.  If only I could have gotten that plate out of the display.  I love it!

 

Can you imagine seeing soldiers wearing these helmets today?

 

This is a boulder from China.  It was so cool and smooth.

 

These 2 jars on the bottom shelf were from 2500 B.C.  That is so fascinating to me.

 

I thought this lady teapot was really cute.  You fill it from her head and it pours out of her hand.

 

My husband loved this piece of furniture.  In fact, he was checking it out so much that he leaned too close and set off another alarm.  I just can't do anything with these guys.

 

  

And this is where my kids were while we were on the 3rd floor.  They had had enough after going through all the displays on the 2nd floor.

 

After our tour of the art museum.  We headed back to the hotel and then were meeting up with the team for dinner.

These are a couple more pics of downtown Birmingham.

 

On Saturday, the rain stopped and the sun came out so we could focus on the real reason we were here.

 

I saw this tree next to our car.  I had never seen one like it and thought the flowers were really pretty.

 

Sunday was another clear day and we got to play even more softball.

 

  

We had a game in the morning and one in the afternoon.  Since we had checked out of our hotel that morning, we were able to go do a little more sightseeing between games.

One of the main things I wanted to see was Alabama's miniature version of The Statue of Liberty.

 

This wall is at the BSA headquarters.  The wall has names of every boy scout who has earned their Eagle Scout in the state of Alabama.  The names date all the way back to the 1960's.

 

I have always wanted to visit New York City but have never gotten there.  I guess the mini version will have to do for now.

It was quite fascinating.  I can only imagine the real one probably takes your breath away.

 

 

 

We got to start our second game of the day and about the 2nd inning, the rain moved in and flooded all the fields.  

I secretely laughed to myself, we got in the car and headed home.

I'm so glad that we got to see a little of this beautiful city.