My Parents 60th anniversary

 My parents have been married for 60 years this month so of course we had a party.

My brother and children did most all of the planning and hosting and they did a very good job coming up with a party that was perfect for my parents and the occasion.   

Nina baked the cake.  She decorated it with important symbols from my parents life.  

She also made a jar full of yummy lemon curd to serve with the cake. 

 The party was held at a very nice Italian restaurant in our town. 

 Jimmy worked there for 10 years so the restaurant went all out with the best food and nicest room. 

Nina and Jimmy did the decorations.  

They used lots of pictures of my parents.  

The smaller pictures are in Kerr jars because my parent's last name is Kerr.  

 Nina and Uncle Jimmy waiting for the party to begin.  

 from one end of the table - 

the pretty lady in blue that is giving her order to Jessica,  is my Aunt Betty.  

Her picture is also in photo header on this blog.  

 Elizabeth and Gavin enjoying their drinks with straws.  

Gavin was very happy when Pa and Roro cut the cake.  

He loves cake and thinks his Aunt Nina makes the best cakes in the world.  

this picture shows more of the room.  

Jimmy's longtime friend and coworker, Jessica, was our server and she did a great job of making the dinner so nice.  

My Mom does stuff too

this beautiful crazy quilt was made by my mom for son Jimmy to congratulate him on his admission to the Bar.

My photography skills do not do it justice but here goes......

This quilt is made of old neckties - some belonged to relatives and others were thrifted.

all the blogs have lots of hand embroidery and other embellishments.

This block has Jimmy's law school's name and tower embroidered on it.

a dinosaur because young Jimmy planned to be a paleontologist.

this one has a section of a canary necktie that belonged to my dad.

My brother wore the same tie to work for an Ugly Tie contest and won first prize.

However, daughter Nina was very fond of this tie. One Sunday morning when she was about 2 years and too sick to go to church, my dad tied this canary tie around her neck and it made her very happy.

a button grape cluster because Jimmy worked at an Italian restaurant almost 10 years

frogs and peacocks

even some beading on this fancy crazy quilt

some machine embroidery on the block for Oklahoma State University

Mom used some of her sister's double knit scraps for the back and she pieced them together so pretty

Mom said this quilt was so much fun to make. She has even considered getting rid of all her other sewing and craft supplies so she could just make crazy quilts.

I don't expect she really will give up everything else but I do expect she will make more crazy quilts.

2 reasons new blog posts are not happening

Record-breaking hot weather has been around since the first of June

with very few days under 100 degrees.

It is not fun at all.

These 2 little urchins are sweet as can be and are spending lots of time with me while their parents go to work.

Here they are doing high-fives while they wait for their breakfast.

So between busy toddlers and this heat wave,

I am just not doing much extra.

Fall will be here soon and hopefully when it is cooler, we will all be more cheerful.

my kitchen assistants

Up until today, Gavin and Elizabeth have only ate food from my kitchen.

They are getting bigger, so today,

they learned how to make a family favorite,

salad crackers.

My grandmother made these at least 30 years ago. I know it was then because son Bobby ate them when he was a toddler and he is 30.

We have been eating them ever since.

Salad crackers are oyster/soup crackers moistened with salad oil so the seasoning mixture of dill, onion and garlic powder, and dry ranch dressing mix will stick.

The grandbabies had fun making and eating them.

And just a few crackers flew out of the bowl onto the floor.

salad crackers are popular with everyone in this family.

We all like them on top of salad instead of croutons. I think most recipes for these seasoned crackers call for 1 or 2 bags of crackers but I always make a big batch of 4 bags.

This makes a lot but they won't last long here,

especially since we have 2 more salad cracker fans.

Daughter Nina's latest project

Nina saw some very cute and very expensive fabric playhouses that fit over card tables on Etsy. At their home, the play area is in a nook beside the dining room and Nina wanted to use their tall dining table as the base.
She used low-cost brown sheets for all the walls and roof. Her big shortcut was using the finished edges of the sheets as the bottom of the walls so she would have less sewing.
She used fabric from my stash for the curtains, window boxes and door. _the door is not quite tall enough and will need to be adjust though.

The windows have clear vinyl in them, she bought it at Hobby Lobby and it looks good but my machine did not like sewing over it.

Pretty cute isn't it? And it can easily be moved and folded up at meal time.