Wall Art

My little blog as been a tad neglected latly due to the 'back to school' madness! I have been busy setting up my new classroom and planning away for my new group of first graders! I can't believe summer has come and gone already!!! It was an AMAZING time!! I will blog about the last few weeks of summer soon.

But first, some wall art...

I had been looking for a few months for something to put on our 'focal' wall in our bedroom. When we painted our bedroom back in March I knew I wanted something 'new' for the wall above our bed, but I just didn't know what I wanted. So we hung the orginal picture back up, and left it alone! 

This is what it looked like...

Then one day when I was walking through the clearance section at Michaels, and these frames caught my eye...

I only paid 10 bucks for all of the frames so I was pretty happy with that deal!!

I bought some cheap gray spray paint and got to work...

I played around with the layout of the frames for a few days, and then hung them up on the wall. And I am really pleased with how it turned out!! 

I'm still trying to decide if I should add some 'decorative' items
inside the frames or not...

What do you think?!?

Say Cheese...

We had family pictures taken back in early July! This was part of our gift to my parents for their 30th anniversary that they celebrate in March! 

This is my beautiful family...

Handsome boys!

Dad and the boys!

Me and my Ma!

Mom and Dad!

Still going strong after 30 years!

Cody being...well, Cody! Ha!

Me and my boys!! 

Love my brothers!

Summer Sweets!

I like to do ALOT of baking in the summertime, and these next two recipes have been VERY popular with my friends and family this summer!! They are both quick and easy to make, and only require a few ingredients! I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!!

"Magic" Bars

What you need:

1/2 cup melted butter

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 cups chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups flaked coconut

1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350'

Spray 9x9 baking pan with Pam.

Combine graham cracker crumbs and melted butter.

Press into bottom of pan.

Pour condensed milk over the crumb crust.

Layer evenly with chocolate chips, coconut and then pecans.

Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

Let cool for at least an hour.

Cut and ENJOY!

Reese's Treats 

What you need:

1 cup white sugar

1 cup corn syrup

1 1/3 cup peanut butter

4 1/2 cups Rice Krispies Cereal

8 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, chopped

1/3 cup chocolate chips 

In a large sauce pan, melt sugar, corn syrup and peanut butter until combined and smooth.

Remove from heat.

Quickly add the cereal and stir to combine thoroughly. 

Add chocolate chips and chopped Reese's, folding the mixture together thoroughly. 

Line a baking sheet with wax paper and scoop tablespoons of mixture onto the baking sheet.

Let cool and ENJOY!

I made a big batch of these treats a few weeks ago and gave some as a little gift to a fellow peanut butter lover!! She loved them! And I mmmay have eaten a few ton of them along the way as well...

Happy Summer Baking!!

Sixty is Sweet!!

On August 10th my Dad turned 60!! 

Look at him!! 

He looks pretty darn AMAZING for 60 if you ask me...

My Dad didn't want to have a big party for his special birthday this year... his request was that we all spend a week together! And that we did! But we still wanted to make him feel extra special on his actual birthday, so we threw him a little BBQ themed birthday party! Why a BBQ themed party you ask?!? 

Well just in case you didn't know...

my dad is the...

That's right! He is the GREAT BBQER! 

The man is the KING of the BBQ! Even his license plate says so! Ha!! 

The boys took Dad golfing during the day, and us ladies stayed home and decorated the cabin! 

 I wanted to do something special for my Dad's 60th, so I made a bunch of cards using old pictures of me and the boys celebrating Dad's birthdays through the years. Then we each wrote little messages to him in each of the cards. He really liked them!! And the pictures brought back lots of memories...and reminders of our AWFUL sense of style back in the day!! Ha!!

 Dad looking at his cards...

Sticking with the 'theme' of our party we had homemade burgers 

and yam fries for dinner! They were delish!!

And for dessert I made these! They were a real hit!! And super easy to make! 

 Sixty candles seemed like too many...So we went with these!! 

YUM! 

Mom and Dad!

Everyone enjoying their 'hamburger' cupcakes!

 It's hard to believe how fast time goes..

HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

I wish you nothing but the VERY BEST in your sixtieth year!!

It was SO much fun to celebrate this special day with you! I feel so lucky to call you my Dad!! 

We love you!!!

Love, Kels

xoxo

Cabin Life!

So we just got back from a WONDERFUL week in Radium with my family! My Dad wanted to do a family trip to celebrate his 60th birthday, so we rented a big beautiful cabin and celebrated for an entire week! 

And let me just tell ya...

This sign was above the door in our cabin, and it couldn't be more true! We had the best week just relaxing, going to the beach, cooking together, going for walks, playing games, and just spending time together!! 

This was our cabin. It was pretty awesome! 

That is, until the air conditioning stopped working...ha ha 

The weather was beautiful so we spent a lot of time at the lake! 

Damian and Cody playing Monopoly!

Soaking up the sun! 

Football time!

Playing cards!

Then all of a sudden we were having a head stand competition! Ha ha!!

I LOVE the mountains!! It was so nice to wake up to  our beautiful view every morning! We did lots of walking and 'hiking' while we were away! We needed to do some sort of 'exercise' to combat the chips and cookies we seemed to eat with EVERY meal! Ha! Ahhhh vacation food!!! 

After dinner walking time...

A few of us decided to go for a hike one morning after breakfast!

Cody was leading us...so of course we ended up climbing a giant hill! Ha! 

Ma and Pa on our morning walk!

Another evening walk...

Beautiful view!

Me and Damian

Ma and Pa!

The boys found the hockey arena! Ha!!

The deer wanted to play too! 

We also did ALOT of lounging and just hanging out together!! 

The boys blessed us with 'lovely' singing! Ha!

Just chilling!

Mmm we ate ALOT on this trip!!!

Playing cards on the deck!

Cheers!

And we made a few ICE CREAM stops! 

Brit, Mom, Kellen

One afternoon we decided to head to the Radium Hot Springs. 

It was a really hot day out, so it was nice to have the hot and cold pools to choose from! 

 Cody enjoyed the diving board! Ha! 

One of my Dad's requests for his birthday trip was that we ALL go golfing together! For those of you that don't know...I HATE golf...I LOVE mini golf...however to play a whole round of golf sounds like a straight up nightmare to me! BBBBUT...my Dad insisted that we all go play! And to be honest I had ALOT of fun! We played a SUPER easy Par 3 course and we had a blast! I think I did pretty well considering I hadn't actually played golf since I was 12 years old! We ALL laughed a TON so it was definitly worth it!!

Look!! We are going golfing!!!

Dad, Cody, Brit

Dad, Kellen, Me, Damian 

The whole family on hole #18!!

And that was our amazing Radium trip! 

We had a TON of fun, shared ALOT of laughs, and made LOTS of memories!!! 

We packed up all of our things and made our way home! 

And I'm already missing cabin life...