Clambake!

There is nothing more quintessentially 'Cape Cod' as the clambake.  When it's done on a large scale, a giant fire pit is made with wooden pallets, rocks and tons of seaweed, then covered with a giant tarp and the food is steamed.  This one was at my sister in law's house so just regular grills and cook stoves were used.  There were about 12 lobsters and underneath are clams.

Sadly I can't eat them.  I also couldn't have the clam chowder or stuffed quahogs.  I was very grateful that there were hotdogs, chips and cheese.  

One of my sisters in law helping my father in law with his 'lobstah bib'.  😆

My FIL and another sister in law, Grampa John and in the background, her hubby.

Russell and his brothers.

Clams

Family photo before I could coax the rest into the pic.

And after they got into the pic.

It was a beautiful day but we've been having a lot of mosquitoes.

Lobstah!

Cawn! (I don't really drop my Rs when I talk like most of the people around here)

Baby and Dad Projects!

Card I made for our niece who recently had a baby!  BTW, I went to see baby Abigail when she was 6 days old and she's adorable and so teensy!!!

This is the inside writing area.

And a cross stitch that I kicked butt on, because I started in mid-May for an early June birth!  I needed a frame and rather than get a generic one, I bought a plain wooden frame, painted it pink and then added the 2 flower stickers.  The stitched lettering gave me fits and I ripped it out a few times before I got it right.  I was pretty bummed that the lettering in the picture on the kit looked nothing like the lettering instructions given for the alphabet and numbers.  

I also did a Fathers Day altered book project for my honey.  I was so excited to do it and it only took about 2-3 hours and I was sad it was done so quickly.  I'm leaving the pics in a small size to make them as anonymous as possible, as I've not asked the kids if it's OK for me to post pictures of them here. I also haven't posted pictures of this project on Facebook because I don't want the kids to be embarrassed or uncomfortable with their baby pics being shown.  The first on the cover is him with them at Disney World from 2000 when they were still quite small.  (You can click on the pics to make them bigger though).

The photos on the left side of each page are of Russell with each child when they were babies or toddlers, plus a small professional picture of them and the right side of each page has a recent photo of him & each kid. I spent quite awhile looking at all his old photos and it's true what they say: First child is in 1000 pictures, second child in 200 by themselves and the rest with their older sibling, third child appears in most photos with his siblings!  lol  I had my pick of great photos of his eldest, but boy did I have to dig for ones of the youngest!!

His oldest son

His daughter.   She is the only one of the three who knew what I was doing because I had to get her over here to shoot her pic with him!  

Youngest son.  This pic of them, taken one Sat. when they went golfing together, was what gave me the idea for this project. 

The 2 youngest visited us one afternoon so I got a pic of them with him, and then I had to add a cut out of one of his oldest, because he lives in Ohio now.  They've told me in the past that it's next to impossible to get all 3 of them together in the same place, so this was my only option! 

Happy Father's Day Dad. I Miss You.

A few years ago, I made this little remembrance book as a tribute to my beloved father, who passed away on June 23, 2003.

He was born in 1922, in Georgetown, British Guiana in South America. He, his brother Frank and sister Stella were orphans.

Dad became a US citizen when he was 19 and joined the army. He was wounded in Italy in WW2 and received a purple heart.

Daddy's little girl.

I have a hard time listening to "The Dreaming Tree" by Dave Matthews without weeping at the lyrics quoted on this panel.

Dad's the groovy chick in the pant suit at our beach house.

He used to perform in the Lions Club Minstrel Show each year, in the chorus, singing a solo and also as a Flora Dora Girl. He loved that skit the best. Note the unfortunate flash marks on his balloon boobs. Mom made his Flora Dora costumes.

He took me to see my beloved Red Sox.

Always civic-minded, he proudly volunteered to march in town parades as a Lions Club member.
Then there was the time I dragged him all over Northern California for 3 weeks in the summer of 1988, the year before I moved there.

We had a great time.

I found this note when he found out I got a raise at Channel 56.

This is the last time I saw him alive. He was undergoing radiation for aggressive lung cancer. Diagnosed in February, gone by June.