Loggerhead Marine Life Center

One of my favorite places to visit here in South FL is the Loggerhead Marinelife Center, it is free to get in but a donation of $5.00 is suggested. It is a hospital for sea turtles and their stories of survival are always amazing to me to listen to and read about. This was my first time ever being there when it was feeding time. So cool to watch the turtles eat squid, rock fish, etc. They put the turtles vitamins inside the fish and give them that one first so that they know they got what ever vitamins that they need. The summer camp kids got to feed the turtles and my boys were very jealous.

This guy kept coming up for air and I love that I was able to capture him out of the water.
One of the new additions to the center is this growth chart. So cool to see how my kids measure up to the sea turtles.

They even have the baby sea turtles, but on this trip I didn't get any pictures of them. One of these days I am going to go on a sea turtle walk on the beach.

4th of July Weekend

Yes, I did say weekend. With Monday being the holiday I felt like we celebrated all weekend long and for sure into Monday. :)
Friday we got together with some friends and got our craft on.
We made plaques for the 4th.

We cut out rectangles to make shirts for the 4th. Who wants a store bought 4th of July shirt? ;)

My family all decked out and ready to go to a cookout then onto the fireworks.

It had been a few years since we had last seen our towns actual fireworks show and I have to say I was quite impressed, one of the best I had seen in many years, even Eric agreed.

I hope everyone had a lovely 4th of July weekend like us!
Happy Birthday America!!!

ABC - I love U sign

So a couple of weeks ago I was in Target and came across this sign.  I thought to myself that is really cute but I don't want to spend $20 on it...I can make one.

Theirs

Mine 

I think I am going to hang it in our bedroom but haven't decided for sure.

I used Cricut George Font at 1".

This is an 8X10 frame that I had something else in but the style was not my style anymore, paper I had in my stash = FREE!

Project Life

I was getting ready for bed and the assortment of brands and colors of our toothbrushes caught my attention. My boys picked out new toothbrushes today and a new one for their dad as well. They are very much into making sure everyone has their favorite color.
Dad/blue
Mom/green
Tyler/yellow
Reed/red (he couldn't find red so orange was the next closest)

4th of July decor

Looking for something fun, quick, and easy to make for a 4th of July decoration?
This banner was all of that!
Friday night while my husband watched TV I sat next to him with my cricut and blue and red paper and cut out stars using the George cartridge ranging is sizes 4-5 1/2 inches. Then this morning I opened up the sewing machine and just stitched them all together. See I told you it was simple.
I think it really turned out cute and looks so festive hanging across my sliding glass windows.

Father's Day dinner

One of my favorite wedding gifts {13 years ago} was the crock pot and it is still going strong. Well with the crockpot came a little receipe book. One thing that I was startled to find in there was a recipe for mock lasagna {crockpot lasagna as it is referred to aroud here}. My husband loves this dinner although it really isn't one of my favs. You would think with a crockpot meal everything would just be thrown into it, but not with this one you first have to brown the ground beef and Italian sausage and that makes a big mess splattering everywhere. YUCK! Well it has been a few years since I last made this for hubby and he always asks for it when I ask him what he wants for dinner so yesterday being Father's Day and all and he has been a great father and husband I thought he deserved his favorite meal.

I got up yesterday and also made him a hearty breakfast which included another favorite of his scrapple although I have declared that he will probably never get it again because I just can't cook it right.

OK, back to the lasagna.
Here is the ground beef and Italian sausage in the lightly greased crockpot after being browned.

Next, comes all these ingredients mixed in with the meat. Yes, I buy the no boil lasagna to save time.
Here is everything all mixed up as it begins to cook.

One thing I have learned after yesterdays experience is that it doesn't need 7-9 hours of cooking time only about 5 on low otherwise it gets burned.

Thanks honey for being a great father to our boys and a wonderful husband to me. I hope you enjoyed your special foods yesterday!

Thrifting

One thing that I love about being a teacher and having summer vacation is that I get to do more of what I love {There are a lot of things that I love that I don't get to do during the school year.} and one of those things that I love is going thrifting.
On this particular day I hit up our local Goodwill. The first thing one should always do when entering is seeing what is on "special" for the day. I was pleased to see that one of the "specials" was all children's clothes were 99 cents. Score!!! First place I went was to the childrens clothing. Now let me tell you it is not the easiest thing to shop for childrens clothing at the Goodwill. All the clothes are mixed up boys and girls are together and all the sizes are mixed. So I had about 4 aisle to go up and down looking for things. I was really looking for shorts for the 9 year old. The 6 year old really doesn't need clothes as he gets a lot of hand me downs...although he does sometimes get new clothes. ;} Well I did manage to find the 9 year old some things.

The first item I came across was a Hawaiin style shirt and the bonus is that it was a Quiksilver brand and I know that those clothes tend to hold up. I asked the 9 year old if he liked the style of it and he said, "Yes." You know there is always that one day at school where they have Hawaiin day and he has since gotten too big for the ones that he had. Plus if he doesn't grow too much it may actually still fit him at the end of his 5th grade year as they tend to do a Luau at the end of the school year.

I also came across 2 other items of clothing. Once being a pair of shorts and this style of shorts are perfect for my boy as he doesn't like to button and zip. The kid will still just pull on his shorts regardless if there are buttons and zippers. Maybe we should work on the button issue with him this summer...
The next thing that I found for him was a pair of khaki pants {they have an all around elastic waist} that will be good for his school dress code when the weather gets chilly. They are just a little too long but I am sure he will get a little bit taller within the next 6 months before he could possibly have to wear them down here in the sunny south.

So my receipt was $3.15! Not bad for 3 new to him pieces of clothing.
Often going to the children's clothing section I checked out the furniture...nothing that I had to have.
My final stop was the glasswares section. I am always looking to score another piece of the white Fire King that I love...but no such luck on this day. Haven't found anything since last summer...
Can't wait to hit up some more thrift stores this week as I now have a mission for a piece of furniture! Woohoo!!! Hopefully I can find it and get a new summer project going!