10 ways to kick off your summer

Today was the last day of school, so in my mind this afternoon officially marked the beginning of summer.  Longer evenings!  No school zones!  More playing outside!

A few reasons why I'm excited it's summer:

• more sunlight makes it feel like I can fit more into my day
• working four long days so I can have Fridays off!
• the slower pace
• lightning bugs!
• my birthday
• our anniversary
• traveling to new places
• more time with the puppies!
• the opportunity to slow down and not be so rushed

Let's ring in the new year season.  Here are 10 quick ways to get into the summer groove:

1) Make a pitcher of lemonade.

2) Invest in a rocking chair for your porch or patio.



3) Go on an evening walk and look for lightning bugs (or fireflies for the non-southern).

4) Host a cookout.

5) Visit a farmer's market (or a friend's veggie garden).



6) Light up some sparklers...bonus points if you write your name before it burns out!

7) Road trip!



8) Set up a kiddie pool for the kids (or puppies).

9) Attend an outdoor concert or music festival.



10) Go old school--gather up the neighbors and have an old-fashioned ice cream social or progressive dinner.

Here's to a long, relaxing summer!  How will you kick it off?

Adi

Graduation Party Ideas

Last week I received an invitation to my cousin's high school graduation.  Is she seriously that old?  I wasn't too far from my own high school graduation when she was born, and since I'm still 21 in my own mind that means she's definitely not old enough to graduate...

It seemed like a good time to post about some of my favorite ideas for a graduation party.  I joined Pinterest after my last grad school final (the carrot at the end of the final-master's-course-stick, if you will).  My own party was the first thing Pinterest ever helped me plan, and I used it to help with my little sister's graduation from the same school a few years later, too.  A lot of the ideas are blue and gold, but of course you can adapt these ideas for your own mascots and color schemes.

We had the party at my house and I kinda regret doing that.  My mother-in-law had offered to host it for me but since I was graduating in December I turned our annual Christmas party into a graduation party.  Between finals, graduating, and hosting, it turned out to be a bit much and by about 9:30 I was ready for everyone to go home so I could go to sleep.  I am SUCH a party animal.

My mom made me a cool cake with my school's logo on the top.  I loved it!

I made sugar cookies with sparkly icing showing the school nickname and year.  These keep well so I was able to make this ahead of time, which was helpful since the party was the same day I graduated!

These "diplomas" are actually those Pepperidge Farm cookies that come in a canister.  (You just tie your school's color of ribbon on them.)  Yum!

Our families pitched in with the rest of the items:  7 layer dip, mini sandwiches, meat and cheese rollups, etc.  I definitely needed their help and I'm so glad they were willing.

One perk to graduating in December was that my party supplies were bought in June for next to nothing.  If you're fortunate enough to graduate at a weird time of the year, keep an eye out for decorations during the previous "traditional" graduation time in the late spring/early summer.

Looking back, the mix of graduation and Christmas decorations kinda makes me giggle.

I put out little buckets of color-coordinated candy.  I found these candy sticks at Cracker Barrel (they have all of the colors!!) plus butterscotch disks and Hershey kisses with blue wrappers.

Somebody though Cleo needed in on the festivities.  Poor dog.

A few other ideas:

If you're able to, borrow the whole graduation getup from a friend who graduated from the school a term or two ahead of you.  Take fun pictures around the campus that you can use with your invitations!

Me and Willie the Ram:

Posing at the entrance of the alumni building:

The invitations I made were actually wedding invitations.  I had already had two graduations before this so I was over the traditional invitation thing.  I love how they turned out!

Have you thrown a graduation party?  Share your favorite ideas here!

Adi

Christmas Light Flight

My father-in-law had a great opportunity to go on the flight and could bring one other person.  Lucky for me:  the other (local) family members did not want to go!  We got on the flight list for last night and off we went.

Now I love driving around to look at Christmas lights, but Christmas lights on a plane?  Sign me up!

Look at the cool nose art on this C47!

 

The cockpit:

 

They invited WWII vets to sign the plane and we were lucky enough to have one join us that night!  (He was 90!)  The messages around the plane were so neat. 

 

Here we go!

  

 

A few shots of downtown Fort Worth:

I may have gotten in trouble for having the flash on but those were the best pictures.  (I promise I did not even realize it!  I was just trying to get good pictures and the best were on sports mode!)  Maybe if I took the time to learn more about my camera I could have gotten some good pictures WITHOUT the flash.

It was a cool opportunity and I'm so thankful I got to go!  Here's a link to the Great Generation Aircraft website in case you're interested in touring Fort Worth from above.  We had a blast!

 

Adi