Father's Day: Member-Guest, Date Nights and Milestones

We had a busy, fun Father's Day weekend.

Kevin's parents came in town for three days and the guys competed in our club's Member-Guest golf tournament.  It's a ton of golf in a couple of days, but it's easily one of our favorite events of the summer.  The guys golf, get golf swag and the ladies enjoy some fancy dinners and get togethers.  Win-win.  My MIL always helps with yard projects so I look forward to that.

Thursday:

The theme this year was College Days so we did our best to represent Notre Dame.  A friend and I double booked the same babysitter so we ended up combining kids at their house and going out to dinner together. 

The food and drinks are always AMAZING.

The guys played 2 rounds of 9 the first day and won a cash prize for coming in #1 in their flight.

I stopped in TJ Maxx a couple days ago and hit the jackpot!!  They had so many cute things.  I found this dress on clearance and this cute straw circle bag.  I loved both of them!

Friday:
The boys golfed 3 rounds of 9 holes and came home exhausted.  We picked up pizza and relaxed.  The girls worked hard on things around the house and stopping in at garden centers.  We picked out two new butterfly bushes!  We also showed Kevin's mom around to some of our favorite spots.

We also found a bench and cushions to add to our deck.

Saturday:
Complete rain out!!  Boo!!

The boys woke up extra early to hurry to the club in the hopes that they'd get to play 9 and make the playoffs.  But the weather was terrible.  Storms and rain ALL day.  They called off all play except for the top three teams.  We were hoping to head to the ladies brunch and swim, but had to cancel.  The guys headed home and we improvised with indoor activities.  The ropes course was fun :)

The weather cleared a bit in time for dinner!  Babysitters arrived and we headed out.  Hooray for 2 date nights in a week!!  I found this cute top at TJ Maxx, too.

Lots of yummy food again.

You know you're a parent when... you send goofy pictures of yourself to the babysitter to check in :)  I don't like lobster so Kevin got double lobster.

The guys won two cash prizes and had a good time.  They wished they could have gotten in their last two rounds, but I guess that's just golf.

Sunday:
Father's Day morning we all woke up and got ready to celebrate Kevin.  He opened gifts - all his favorite things - Vineyard Vines, a yard game, a coffee cup and coffee money.  He's responsible most of the fun and adventure in our family and goes out of his way to make us all feel loved.

We headed to church and heard a great Father's Day sermon.

We came home and ate lunch.  Mid-lunch Olive says, "I think I just lost my tooth!"  I looked and confirmed a missing tooth.  We thought she swallowed it, but it ended up being on the floor.  We were all in shock and it kind of scared her at first.  She went to check things out in the mirror.  Although her bottom teeth had been loose, I didn't think they were quite ready to fall out.  What a surprise!  It felt like a big kid milestone for all of us.  Tooth fairy here we come!!  

And since we're talking about so much golf, I had to dig up this picture from us from high school.  Maybe 1999ish.  I've been watching Kevin golf for 20 years and I love it.  It's so fun to be in his gallery and cheer him on :)  I used to tag along in high school completely clueless about the game.  A friend and I would swing by Sonic for milkshakes and then head to the golf course. I didn't know much about the game; I just knew I wanted to be there support Kevin. Same story today!  Love this guy!

How was your Father's Day weekend??

4 Simple Strawberry Recipes & Berry Picking Favorites

We got to go strawberry picking this week and it might have been our best experience yet.  It's always a FAVORITE summer activity for us.  The kids both picked berries (although Fletcher did a lot of eating and not a lot of filling the basket :), were happy to go along for the ride, ate berries and the weather was PERFECT.  Like 70s, blue skies and the perfect amount of wind.  What is this Summer weather in the Midwest!?!  We'll take it although it's feeling much too cold for swimming.  Maybe next wee!

I loaded up the kid and headed about 30 minutes north.  We have picked strawberries and apples at Ditzler Orchard for 3 years now.  We look forward to this short little road trip regularly.  The first year was hard - baby Fletcher hated it and every year has gotten easier after that.  So moms of littles... keep it up.  One day your outings will get easier and your kids will be able to do more and more!!  I promise!

Strawberry Picking 2017
Strawberry Picking 2018

 Summer perfection!!

We got home and went on a bike ride or two.

We ate all of our strawberries pretty quickly.  I thought you might be interested in 4 SUPER easy, SUPER fast recipes to use fresh strawberries in this Summer.  It's hard to call them recipes because they really are so basic.  I guarantee you'll enjoy these easy ideas for strawberries this Summer.

Strawberry Lemonade
(pink lemonade + finely chopped strawberries.  You can mash them or chop them fine)

Strawberries + Whipped Cream

Strawberry Ice Cream
Finely Chop strawberries + favorite vanilla ice cream.
Let the vanilla ice cream melt just a little and stir in fresh strawberries.

Sugar Dusted Strawberries
Sprinkle powdered sugar on top and serve.

Yum!  Tastes like Summer!

 It's time to link up with my favorite blogging buddies for High Five for Friday.  Join us with a few different blog posts and be sure to look around to find some new blog friends

Becky @  By BMG Blog
Della @ Della Devoted
Tif @ Bright on a Budget
Whitney P @ Come Home for Comfort

This link party is powered by Link Party Animal

DIY Lemon Topiaries

It's no secret that I love lemons.

I love everything from lemonade to lemon printed clothes to lemon decor.

Lemons are just so cheerful.

I picked up these lemon topiaries at Walmart for $7.88 each in their Spring decor section!!  What a steal!!

There is no way I could have purchased the supplies to make one of my own for that price.  However, I wasn't completely happy with the way they looked.  You could see the styrofoam ball pretty clearly and they looked a little sparse.  I opted to buy the Walmart topiaries and head to Hobby Lobby to buy some half off greenery.

The whole project cost me about $24

2 - $7.88 lemon topiaries
1 - $7.50 half off greenery garland from Hobby Lobby

I LOVE the way they turned out and they make me smile every time I see them on my mantle.

Let me walk you through the step by step DIY process in pictures.

BEFORE: 2 topiaries straight from the store.  The leaves have wire in them so they were easy to adjust.

TONS of lemons of various sizes.

They looked great from overhead, but sparse from the side.

I picked up a similar shape/color leaf garland to add into the topiaries.

Fletcher helped me pull off half the leaves on the garland.  I cut it in half - saving half the garland to keep in tact and half the garland to pull apart.

I counted out the same number of leaves for each topiary tree then hot glued them on.

See all the gaps in the leaves/lemons.

Ta Da!!  The AFTER lemon topiary trees with more leaves!

Up close.  Much more dimension and interest.

I love how bright and Summery these look on the mantle.  I had to play with the mantel set up for a while to get it right.

1. Two topiaries looked sad and too small for the mantle.
2. Added the greenery garland in the middle.
3. Stacked the topiaries on pillar candle holders
4. Still not tall enough so I added a stack of 3 books under each tree.
5. Love the final look!

Be sure to play around with your decor until you love the look.  I just shopped my house and kept pulling things from my decor stash until the mantle looked right to me.

The final look in our family room!

What's on your mantle right now??

My Tips & Tricks for Flying with Kids

We just got back from a super fun week in Florida!

But you know what's not super fun - when travel does not go as planned.  Our flights to Florida could not have gone better.

Our flight from Florida was not allowed to land in Atlanta (after circling the airport for a while - barf! - due to weather) got diverted to Birmingham with no great options to get us home.  I read that they diverted 50 planes on Saturday so I know there were a lot of travel turfs as we call them.  There were storms everywhere and not many answers for when we'd be able to get a flight home. 

Kevin took charge - rented us a car and car seats and drove us 8 hours home - our hero!  It was so good to sleep in our own beds.  But we still have not been reunited with our 4 suitcases, stroller and 2 car seats - MAJOR bummer!!  Here's to hoping Southwest comes through for us and we're reunited soon because we are missing a lot of stuff.

Now on to the fun tips and tricks for flying with kids.

We fly a couple times of year with the kids.  They're little traveling pros.  In fact, they were pretty unphased by all the travel chaos this past weekend and were super flexible.  I think it was hardest on the parents, as it should be - right??

Our kids are 3 and 6 and they each get their own backpack when we fly.  It might be their favorite part about the traveling.  I gather things for weeks ahead of time so that they'll have a variety of special surprises on travel day.

I like to save party favors, kid's meal toys, Dollar Tree finds, favorite candies, etc.

I try to make their surprise count equal and do a similar variety of things.  They both get things to eat, play with, art type of things, reading things and things to share.  It works great.

Here's their special surprises this trip:

Olive's Backpack (6yr old):
Stickers and blank paper
Hatchimal Mess Free Marker set
Nerd Rope
Push Pop
Mini Polly Pockets
Twisty Petz
Squishy Unicorn
Paw Patrol Party Favors
Trash bag
Snacks - Nutragrain bar, smarties, pretzels, cheerios, bubble gum and suckers
Kindle Fire (both kids share this)
Bunny & Blanket

Tips & Tricks:
The Twisty Petz were the favorite!  They came from Target.  They were fun to play with and parts were easy to keep together.

The Polly Pocket was very cute, but Olive was hesitant to want to play with all the tiny parts on the airplane.  They would be really easy to lose and hard to keep track of.  

Meijer had the stickers and candy.

I found the Mess Free Marker Pad at TJ Maxx for $2.99.  My kids love these.

The unicorn squishy came from Dollar Tree.  It was fun and super cute, but ripped easily.  It wasn't nearly as durable as the other name brand squishy toys I've seen.  I would not recommend them.

Fletcher's Backpack (3 yrs old):
Water Wow Water Reveal Pad (can fill paint brush with water bottle water)
Stickers & blank paper
Magazine
Airplanes
Tiger squishy
Spinner
Paw Patrol Party Favors
Nerd Rope
Push Pop
Snacks - Nutragrain bar, smarties, pretzels, cheerios, bubble gum and suckers
Trash bag
Puppy & Blanket

Tips & Tricks:
The Water Wow pad came from TJ Maxx and was so much fun!  Both kids loved it and it held up SO well.  It was $3.99 and I'll definitely be buying more.  The brush was so easy to fill with water from our water bottles and didn't need refilled very often.

The airplanes, candy and stickers were from Meijer.  They were metal and great quality.

We went to a family friendly event in the community and they were giving out free spinners.  I saved it for Fletcher's surprises and it was great!  I also saved our latest magazine subscriptions for the kid's backpacks. 

I always fly with plastic bags to use for trash, dirty clothes, or to contain messes on the go.  Each kid gets one in their backpack and then I put a few in mine.  I also pack a change of clothes for each kid, empty water bottles to fill at the airport, LOTS snacks, wet wipes, clorox wipes, hand sanitzer, paper towels and important documents in my backpack.  Kevin packs electronics, a book to read and charging cords.

I also try to save back a special surprise or two for the return trip home.  I just put them in a bag in my checked luggage and add them to the kid's backpacks when I'm repacking us to head home.  They get to play with all of their initial surprises plus one or two new things.

 What special surprises would your kids like to play with on an airplane??

Amazing Kid Safe Knives for the Kitchen

My kids love to help me in the kitchen, but up until now, I haven't been able to let them help me with any chopping.  Sharp knives are the last things that I want to give my children.  I recently discovered some really great KID FRIENDLY KNIVES and put them on Olive's birthday wish list.

I knew she'd love them.

I didn't realize that we'd ALL come to love them.

These get used every single day at my house and I'm about ready to order a second set.  This post isn't sponsored - just a friend sharing something I love!!

They come as a set of three and they work perfectly for both my six year old and my three year old.  They're heavy duty and durable.  I don't worry about my kids hurting themselves with them.  They give the kids such a fun independence in the kitchen.  We've started having lunches that the kids can chop all on their own and they are so proud of all their chopping.

I love seeing them figure out how much effort is required to cut a nectarine vs a banana.  Or a cucumber vs a sausage patty.  We've had lots of fun conversations while they chop.  They think they're hot stuff being able to use knives and help me chop.

I really can't say enough wonderful things about this set of kid friendly knives.  You've got to check them out on Amazon.  Can you believe they're only $8.94?!?!?



Here are the knives in action:

Chopping favorites: Watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumbers, cheese, bananas, sausage links, strawberries and apples have all been fun to chop. 

*Amazon affiliate link include.  Thanks for supporting PDP :)

Summer: Day in the Life

I'm excited to have June and July off with the kids!  We're the bosses of our days!  Hooray!

We have a few things on the calendar - appointments for all of us, meetings, lessons, tennis, swimming, etc.  But there's still lots of open time where we can do what we want.

Some years I put together a big bucket list.  Not this year.  We have traditions that we'll definitely do - the County Fair, strawberry picking, road trips, Sunflower maze, etc.  But we'll be doing more fly by the seat of our pants and see what sounds fun that day.  We will be open to last minute invitations and fun with friends.

Our routine will look something like this: wake up, enjoy some time at home while we eat breakfast and make a plan for the day, get out of the house, pack a lunch to eat on the go or outside, enjoy some time playing at home, swim, see friends, lots of grilling, bike rides and catching lightning bugs with neighbors.

We started making daily to do lists on Friday (our first day of Summer break).  The kids love getting a say in what we do and I love mixing in a bit of routine into our days.  I wrote the list and posted it for reference in a high traffic area.  The kids kept checking it to see how we were doing.  There was no pressure to cross everything off the list.  Just work through as many things as possible.  We got through 5 of the things on our list this day.

I plan to offer fun things like:
parks
picnic with Kevin on campus
favorite restaurants
pool
backyard pool
sprinkler
various art projects
movies
grilling
ice cream date
Summer reading program at library
Children's museum
road trips
overnight at a hotel
family gatherings
play dates with friends

Along with simple things like:
puzzles
movie night at home
popsicles
game night
book club
summer school = any at home learning
art free time
gardening
bubble bath
going for a walk

What things are you really looking forward to doing with your family this Summer??

Summer Salads

Happy Summer Break!  It feels good to have a break from our busy school year routines.  Speaking of breaks, I'm going to switch to blogging Monday, Wednesday, Friday this Summer.  I'll still be here and on instagram (@polkadottyplace), but I want to make sure I leave myself plenty of time to enjoy my kids and my family this Summer.

Now let's move on to some delicious recipes.  I'm all about fresh, colorful, quick recipes for Summer.

I really love recipes that you can make once and eat for several days in a row. 

I made up a recipe for a yummy pasta salad over the weekend.  It was so simple and so good.  I almost always have these ingredients on hand which means that this will be an easy side for me to whip up all summer long.

Italian Pasta Salad

1 box mini bow tie pasta
1 c chopped turkey pepperoni
1/4 c sliced black olives
1/4 c finely chopped sharp white cheddar cheese
2 mini cucumbers sliced very thin
purple onion to taste
You could easily add in sweet peppers or tomatoes
1/2 c Olive Garden Italian Dressing*

*This dressing is SO good!  Don't substitute it.

Cook the pasta.  Drain and let it cool.  (You can do this step ahead of time and refrigerate it)
Chop up all the add ins and pour the dressing on top.  Stir until well combined.  Let it sit for at least an hour before serving and add more dressing if the noodles absorb it. 

Here are a few other Summer salad ideas from the archives:

Grilled Romaine Salad (recipe here)

Fresh Avocado Salsa (recipe here)

Fresh Cucumber Salad (recipe here)

Quesadilla Explosion Salad (recipe here)

Cheeseburger Salad (recipe here)

Apple Salad (recipe here)

What's your favorite summer salad to make?