Father's Day

It seems I've become the wife of the church crooner.

For the 3rd year in a row, Greg sang special music on Father's Day during worship service! Two years ago, it was "Somewhere in the World", last year was "Cinderella", and today was "I Want to be Just Like You". Throw in "Butterfly Kisses", and we'd have all the sentimental bases covered! (next year.....) I'm so grateful that he's the father of my children. How could I ask for more?

Warning: Warped Humor

Thanks, Lisa, for these funnies!

Suffice it to say, I'm NOT a fan of snakes

This week has been super busy & fun. Our church held its Vacation Bible School, which was Hawaiian themed.

At the big VBS finale last night, all the kids had a blast playing on inflatables, anticipating the next time the volcano would erupt & spit out candy, gliding down a zip line, etc.

To add to the fun, a portable reptile zoo of sorts was brought in. Because nothing says "let's celebrate VBS" like a Komodo dragon crawling across your foot while you're not paying attention. Thank goodness I keep an extra pair of underwear in my glove compartment.

Anyway, I was shocked & amazed to see my Holly (on the right) draping a snake around her neck as if it were a feather boa.

That girl was channeling Britney Spears at the MTV awards show, friends. And I'm worried.

An Ounce of Creativity .... Lots of Money Saved!

One thing I've noticed is that birthday parties are a BIG deal around here. Oftentimes, the entire school class is invited to celebrate.

When you have FOUR kids in school, that really starts to add up. So we've tried to find frugal ways to put together gifts, with the birthday girl / guy in mind.

Alli decorated the pillows (above) to give her friend, knowing that Ryann had a black & white room and that she loves the fleur de lis design. Not bad, huh? She did this completely on her own!

On the left, I simply embellished a simple denim jacket I bought at Goodwill for $1.99 for Natalie's friend, Alexis, who was having a princess themed party.

What about you? Any thrifty or creative gift ideas you'd like to share?

The Inception of Road Rage

I thought this was so cute:

Grandma's letter

She is eighty-eight years old and still drives her own car. She writes:

Dear Grand-daughter,

The other day I went up to our local Christian book store and saw a "Honk if you love Jesus" bumper sticker. I was feeling particularly sassy that day because I had just come from a thrilling choir performance, followed by a thunderous prayer meeting. So, I bought the sticker and put it on my bumper. Boy, am I glad I did! What an uplifting experience that followed.

I was stopped at a red light at a busy intersection, just lost in thought about the Lord and how good He is, and I didn't notice that the light had changed. It is a good thing someone else loves Jesus because if he hadn't honked, I'd never have noticed. I found that lots of people love Jesus!

While I was sitting there, the guy behind started honking like crazy, and then he leaned out of his window and screamed, 'For the love of God! Go! Go! Go! Jesus Christ, GO!' What an exuberant cheerleader he was for Jesus! Everyone started honking! I just leaned out my window and started waving and smiling at all those loving people. I even honked my horn a few times to share in the love!

There must have been a man from Florida back there because I heard him yelling something about a sunny beach. I saw another guy waving in a funny way with only his middle finger stuck up in the air. I asked my young teenage grandson in the back seat what that meant. He said it was probably a Hawaiian good luck sign or something. Well, I have never met anyone from Hawaii , so I leaned out the window and gave him the good luck sign right back. My grandson burst out laughing. Why, even he was enjoying this religious experience!

A couple of the people were so caught up in the joy of the moment that they got out of their cars and started walking towards me. I bet they wanted to pray or ask what church I attended, but this is when I noticed the light had changed. So, I waved at all my brothers and sisters grinning, and drove on through the intersection. I noticed that I was the only car that got through the intersection before the light changed again and felt kind of sad that I had to leave them after all the love we had shared.

So I slowed the car down, leaned out the window and gave them all the Hawaiian good luck sign one last time as I drove away. Praise the Lord for such wonderful folks! Will write again soon,

Love,
Grandma

Here we are, in Kitchen Stadium

Every year during summer vacation, my kids complain about being bored. I'll agree that sometimes the days seem very l-o-n-g.

So, in an attempt to entertain the troops a bit last week, I suggested that they play "IRON CHEF". Evan & Allison jumped at that opportunity, and I declared that the secret ingredient was ...... PEANUT BUTTER!

Here they are as the competition kicked off, giving their best war cry:

Both competitors were fierce and down to business as they planned and executed their masterpiece dishes for the judges' consideration.

Chef Allison made a delectable batch of no-bake cookies, in addition to a crowd favorite --"Puppy Chow". Both dishes showed off the secret ingredient of peanut butter and wowed the judges.

Chef Evan went with a more simplistic approach, opting for Wheat Thins a la peanut butter, together with an unexpected twist of peanut butter on granola bars, topped off his signature dish: peanut butter & Cinnamon Toast Crunch sandwiches.

The judges were deadlocked ..... but after a lengthy conference, ultimately awarded the victory to Chef Allison.

But most importantly, we passed a couple hours of our l-o-n-g summer day in a positive way!

Camping (sort of.....)

This picture depicts the "tent" my children made in our basement. It's primarily a love seat, covered by an air mattress roof. Since school has been out for summer, 2 campers at a time have taken turns sleeping under the "tent" together.

This is an instance where I have to put aside my thoughts of "what a mess!" and just let them enjoy making these summertime memories together..... right? Last night when I went to bed at 11:00, I could still hear them in the basement giggling.

I savored that moment, knowing that they'd likely be clobbering each other come sunrise. They're siblings, after all.