"50 Sucks!"

What a great Labor Day weekend! Alex didn't have much to do at work last week, so he took off Friday and we headed to Orange Park a little early to spend our four day weekend celebrating my Dad's 50th birthday.

50! Half of a century.

Men are hard enough to shop for, but my Dad, impossible. He has been frequenting garage sales and flea markets every weekend for as long as I can remember, so not only does he have everything he, you or I could ever want or need, but he gets it for peanuts. I racked my brain for months trying to come up with a special gift for such a momentous occasion in his life.

...Cue the Jeopardy music.

If you know my Dad, you know he has a ridiculous sweet tooth - cake, cookies, chocolate, jelly beans, ice cream, frosting - as a dip - you name it! I think it all stems from his early childhood when he took a whole stick of butter out of the fridge, dipped it in sugar... and ate it. True story! So when I came across the "50 sucks!" bouquets on Pinterest, I knew I had a winner, hands down.

Here's what you'll need:

Metal bucket

Styrofoam ball

Black spray paint

Hot glue

50 candies on a stick

McKenna, Kendall and I went to the candy store in our mall and hand-picked all of the sweets for our project - suckers, jelly pops, Sugar Daddies, anything and everything on a stick. The "50 sucks" lollipop was purchased at Party City, the bucket we found at the dollar store and the Styrofoam ball was purchased with a 40% off coupon at JoAnn's.

First, you'll need to spray paint the bucket and Styrofoam ball. Once they've dried, set the Styrofoam ball in the bucket and hot glue the two together at the rim for added stability - it will be heavy! Then, arrange all of the candies on the Styrofoam ball using the giant "50 sucks" lollipop as a focal point.

I was thrilled with the way it turned out! A big thanks goes out to the Mr. for helping me to get everything just right - the engineer in him just loves those tedious little details ;-) I couldn't wait to get to Orange Park and give it to my Dad! I knew he was going to love it.

And he did!

Happy 50th Birthday, Dad! I love you!