lovin’ these Father’s Day quotes: [via real simple]

Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap on a rope.

Bill Cosby, Fatherhood

t’s only when you grow up and step back from him―or leave him for your own home―it’s only then that you can measure his greatness and fully appreciate it.

Margaret Truman, in an address to a joint session of Congress (1984)

Your father, Jo. He never loses patience―never doubts or complains―but always hopes, and works and waits so cheerfully that one is ashamed to do otherwise before him.

Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

The older I get, the smarter my father seems to get.

Tim Russert, Big Russ and Me

I’d love to have a beer with you, Dad.

Kelsey Grammer as Frasier Crane on Frasier

One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.

George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum

To her, the name of father was another name for love.

Fanny Fern, Fresh Leaves

No music is so pleasant to my ears as that word―father.

Lydia Maria Child, Philothea: A Romance

I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.

Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents

[He] adopted a role called Being a Father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector.

Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities

-I agree with Fanny Fern, “the name of father was IS another name for love. My Dad is the most self-less man, and he loves our family unconditionally -always expressing genuine love. He taught us the value of hard, and how important it is to pair that hard work with humility. He’s shown us were faith takes you, and how important it is to have a positive attitude and find strength in the Lord.  He has a tender heart to his girls, and shares his shoulder to lean on. Love you Dad, Happy EARLY Father’s Day!

Happy Easter “Y’all” from the BIG ole’ town of Little Texas. You might remember me posting about it here. The day started off with a early morning church easter service, then home for a fancy white linen table cloth style lunch. But we quickly stripped ourselves of ALL aspects of refinement, and headed out for an afternoon at the farm with family.

I like to call myself the family paparazzi, chasing everyone around with my camera in hand. Especially this little one…

and his partner in crime [aka twin sister], meet Miss Lily.

They were rather intrigued at their brothers bull riding skills

and decided to give it a try themselves.

Surprisingly Whit made it up there all by himself, while Lily opted for some time to be held by her favorite cousins.

Whit found it to be lots of fun! For those that do not know, bull riding is one dangerous sport. Whit’s attempt to stay mounted for at least eight seconds while the bull tried to buck him off  is claimed to be ”the most dangerous eight seconds in sports”. AND HE SURVIVED. [I am totally kidding. You know that right? This bull is completely stationary and we are NOT abusing 2 year olds out here.]

Some of us here enjoy the more recreational and proper horseback riding sport.

Or better yet…hula hoop competitions.

remember, it’s all in the HIPS!

Or maybe just being an onlooker?

We have pretty much covered all the bases, so you thought. We also had baseball games,

sandbox time,

football throwing,

lawn mowing,

easter eggs hunts [more of a easter egg "pick-up"...they're not really hidden]

bubble machines,

and even a tooth-pulling session.

Sara was bound and determine for this tooth to COME OUT, and COME OUT TODAY! She so dearly wanted to lose it last night, but her dad assured her that was not a good idea. The easter bunny and the tooth fairy coming on the same night just might not play out very well. He had totally convinced her that they’d have a brawl on their front porch. So she gave it up yesterday, but 24 hours later – post “bunny visit” – the tooth is OUT.

While ALL these fun and games were going on, I decided to check on the hamburgers and hotdogs. We had lots of little tummies to feed, and the smell of grilling out filled the air.

In reality, maybe the real reason we were dying hoping to eat was because we knew what was coming for dessert.

5 gallons of homemade ice cream!!!!!!!!!

The ice cream maker was our new hand crafted, 5 gallon wooden bucket – powered by an old John Deere motor.

When time was up, dinner had been eaten, tummies were still talking, and hands were coming from all directions.

that stuff was PURE heaven……and these two WILL MOST DEFINITELY agree. They walked away HAPPY!

With that, “Happy Easter Bloggers!”

Hope your Sunday was swell like ours. What did you do? I hope it was filled with family, friends, pretty weather, yummy food, chocolate, and a celebration of the resurrection of our LORD and SAVIOR!

Yesterday was a day of grocery shopping, crafts, baking, cleaning, and a little P90X but that’s a whole post in and of itself

we dyed hard boiled eggs the traditional way, but they dye just wasn’t right. the colors were too BRIGHT, and they just were not jiving with our “decor” style in the dining room for easter sunday! so………

we decided to take another route. we blew out way over a dozen eggs, martha stewart describes that process for you here. yes there is a little tool to do this with, but that little tool wasn’t to be found in our house. so we painstakingly removed the insides from the eggs [note: without actually touching our mouths to the eggs as BHG describes here which SCREAMS salmonella]. Once that process was complete and our brains were completely blown out, we painted the eggs.

one coat

after another

and they finally looked like this.

added to the grass table runner [from a cute store in downtown Homewood] under  the “nest” of yellow alstroemeria

the lingering of our headache paid off

and we moved on to the next step…

baking our “easter stamped” cookies

and decorating the tree

Happy Easter!!