4th of July and happenings

Hello everyone!

This is the front page of our newspaper today, I think it is the  nicest front page I've seen in a long time

This is an odd sight in our town - 4 giant dogs in a storage lot.  We don't know what they are for but they are great looking dogs and very well made.  My husband is 5'11" and they are taller than he is!

I made a batch of granola last week.  It uses very simple ingredients and turned out great!  I like to eat a little granola on top of yogurt.  

This is tastier and much cheaper than buying those little flip cups of yogurt with topping.  

I got the recipe from an Internet friend, Michelle @ homemakingwithlove

You can find her on Instagram and YouTube. 

Thanks Michelle ❤️

I followed this recipe, adding about 1/2 cup of coconut and because we have a bounty of pecans, about 1 1/2 cups.  I also baked about 25 minutes as I like granola extra crunchy.

Sewing - I cut out more than 20 burp cloths for my grandchildren and for gifts.  

The fabric is from Joanns.  

Below is another meal for a group that ended up being a meal to go.  

My aunt and uncle were in our town and they met us along with my parents at our daughter's house.  

Steak fingers,

Mashed potatoes

Gravy

Chopped tomatoes, onions and cucumbers dressed with a little balsamic dressing

Chopped fresh fruit

And a box of Aldi cookies- my daughter surprised us with a warm blackberry cobbler so all the adults had cobbler and only the children had cookies. 

I packed all the food into Dollar Tree plastic containers and everything carried nicely in my big Thirty One Gifts tote.  I put cold foods on one side and hot foods on the other.  

My husband put in a small garden, this first summer of his retirement.  He enjoys it and has harvested quite a few radishes, onions, yellow squash and bell peppers.  The tomatoes are starting to ripen like crazy 😍

 

We always seem to have a craft or two going on here.  

Below is Elizabeth making a birthday card for her dad.  

JJ likes to cut- I think we could hire him out as a confetti maker.  

He likes to ham for camera too 😍

Perler beads are so fun 

Elizabeth made a Grand Old Flag 

And I made a big Captain America.  

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                                       Happy 4th of July to all my American readers 

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June 22 - catching up

Hello everyone! Here are some highlights from the last week or so .........

We found these 18 ounce Pfaltzgraf mugs at the base exchange for just $3.99.  We would of bought more but they only had 3. 

I bought 3 sets of nails to be more than ready for Fouth of July.  One set is royal blue glitter, one set is red and I planned to mix and match those 2 sets and then I found the red, blue stripe and white with anchors set.  

Patriotic things are always appropriate as far as I'm concerned.  

Fathers Day- most all our family was here- 20 of us 😍

Lunch was tossed salad with tomatoes, onions and radishes from our garden, 

Garlic bread, our son made pasta salad and I made doubled eggs.  

My husband smoked brisket and a turkey breast, our daughter in law brought a potato casserole and I cooked green beans with tiny red potatoes. 

Fresh fruit 

My dad baked a blackberry pie with wild blackberries he picked near their retirement home and our daughter in law also brought a Texas sheet cake. 

The entertainment was a water balloon war with those new fangled quick and easy to fill balloon kits. 

It was messy and the main participants were the oldest 5 grands and the 4 young men.  They had a great time.  

It wasn't easy but we managed to get a decent group photo of the 7 grands,  they are wearing the dye shirts made with kits that Elizabeth got for her birthday.  Those squirt bottle tie dye kits work good too - but wear gloves if you use them.  I didn't and it took several days for all the dye to disappear from my cuticles. 

Our town has 2 brand new municipal water park splash pads. 

One is not too far from our home and has no admission fees.  

I took 3 of the grands this week and they had a wonderful time playing in the water for 2 hours.  

Then they had lunch in a pavilion next to the water park.  The summer lunch program, which I believe is a federal funded program operated by the school district, serves lunch there every week day to all children 18 years or younger.  

That day's lunch was a turkey and cheese sandwich with a fresh pear, baby carrots and a choice of white or chocolate milk.  

The grands were hungry after their water play and they gobbled down their sack lunches.  

Then we came home and they were all asleep within a few minutes.  

And I had a nice bowl of leftover salad from Sunday for my lunch and ate in peace while they all napped.  

I expect we will make more trips to the water park this summer.  

Granddaughter Andie stayed with us a few days.  She especially likes to "do crafts" which means she wants to cut and glue. She doesn't really care about structured crafts so I just spread the table with an old disposable tablecloth and gave her child safe scissors, a bottle of glue and scrap craft paper and a few stickers.  She was happy all day Tuesday just glueing and cutting away and making nothing.  

I think she is a good at drawing for a little girl who just turned 4.  

Can you guess what this is? 

A banana getting ready to swim in the ocean 😂

Have a good rest of the week everyone!  I'll be catching up on some housework and staying inside as much as possible.  It is hot here in Oklahoma, just like it always is in summer.