Homemade Granola Bars

I love it when I get to meet online friends IRL (In real life).  In 2009, I had the privelege of meeting my friend De'Etta in person (and her family).  I visit her blog quite often but I love (am obsessed) with her recipe list!  My most recent favorite is the homemade Granola Bars!  I love how flexible it is and I can add whatever additions I want (raisins, chocolate chips, dried fruit etc).  Enjoy!

Homemade/No bake Granola Bars

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons honey
• 3 cups granola, ( I used homemade granola)
• 1 ½ cups rice crispy cereal ( I used gf brown rice cereal, rice crispies, cocoa rice)
• raisins, crasins, and/or chocolate chips (optional)

1. In a pan heat the butter, brown sugar, and honey. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for about 2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved.
2. Remove from heat and stir in granola and cereal until well combined.
3. Stir in raisins, crasins, or chocolate chips if adding. We also like these on their own with no additions. By changing around what I add in, I can vary these a little and make everyone in my family happy.
4. Press mixture in to a 9×13 pan. Let mixture set for several hours or overnight before serving.
5. Cut into bars and serve. I also cut, put into saran wrap and put into ziplocs.

Joshua's Piano Guild graduation

Joshua has been taking piano since he was 7 years old.  This chapter in his life came to a close when he did his piano guild concert in front of a crowd.  This was my 2nd graduation in 2 years......my third will happen soon after when his brother Joseph graduates from high school! WHEW!  This happened before he had to go before a judge and be graded on all things piano/music/theory etc.  He had to play 15 pieces by memory, be quizzed on sight reading, ear training, all cadences, major chords etc.  It was tough!  We are so proud of him for completing this huge task!  Anyways, my friend Lee is obsessed LOVES graduations lol.......no she just loves the pictures.  So I told her I would put some up :)

We had a small reception and set out a few pieces of memoribia of his work with the piano, including a photo slide show (frame on top of box) of photos of his piano along the years.

Joshua with his teacher........she helped him tremendously!

Joseph's graduation

have I said I am tired?  exhausted?  3 graduations, 1 retirement in 2 years?  yes......First we had Joshua's graduation last May (2012) from High school.  We then did Joshua's Piano guild graduation this last April.  Then today, we had the pleasure of doing Joseph's High school graduation.......I wanted to go simple and easy, but then I just decided to meander  look for ideas torture myself on Pinterest! I stumbled on 3 fabulous ideas there.....which I duplicated.  It was actually easier than I thought.  I will put the original Pinterest links in the descriptions when I upload the photos.  We had basically similar to a Baccalaurete service.  Our pastor spoke and did a charge.  My husband spoke about his life up until now.  The men there prayed over Joseph.  We sang hymns, had a slide show of his life and ate.....If you have ANY questions, just ask in the comments and I will be happy to answer!

This idea was of a candy table off of pinterest.  Mine was not near as condensed as the original, but you get the idea.  Almost all of the candy was purchased at the Dollar Tree.  Here's the original idea!

 our 2013 Graduate!

 our 3 precious gifts....our boys!

This collage was done through Sam's club and only cost $5.96 for a 16x20!

 This is the original idea for this board that I did for him!  Loved doing this!

lots of canvases that I made myself and hang here in the dining room. Some of his sports memorobilia (he's a big packers fan) including a Bart Starr signed photo, the newspaper from the day he was born, awana awards, chess awards etc.  Also back there is his civil war scrapbook and some of his schoolwork!

These are purchased from the Dollar tree (the glass squares).  I put wallet photos of him (4 different ones) on cardstock and turned the square upside down.  It has a battery operated light in it as well.

To keep things simple, we did water, Lemonade and EASY punch.  Basically it was 1-2 two liters of 7up to 1 container of sherbet!

My brother had come to set up for his slide show of photos where the reception was.

Here's a larger, bigger version of the candy table idea!

I didn't have some of the things to make this one fuller, but I LOVED this idea!  Here's the original post from this idea.  Since we homeschool, a school bus wasn't necessary but we made due :)  I didn't want to spent the $2.50 on the chalk boards for the front.....but it turned out cute.  Who knew that Ring pops could disappear SO fast :)

  I used this idea to make the lables for the food!

In case you can't tell what these are.......here's the post on this. I wanted to make them into suckers, but they were still frozen :)

Other than that, the rest of the food was simple.  We had fruit kabobs, bbq meatballs, piggies in a blanket, homemade chocolate chip cookies, brownies, strawberries with dip and lots of chips & dips!