The Circus Came to Town

... the birthday circus, that is! We celebrated Brenna's fourth birthday today. Technically, she isn't 4 until Monday, but with Easter being the weekend following her birthday we had the party a couple of days early. Brenna has been talking about her JoJo Circus party for almost a year- ever since she picked it out last year. I'm glad it finally arrived, because I was getting tired of hearing about it ;) Only one of her little friends from church was able to come. With this being the end of spring break for most kids, the other friends were going to be out of town. We were glad Leisha could join us!
We started off the party with a bit of coloring fun- clown pictures and pompoms to glue on.

Here's Carissa showing off her completed masterpiece.
Then, we sent the kids out to the backyard for a little bit of running around while I got the table set up for lunch. Here's Brenna walking the 'balance beam'
and we had a bean bag toss game too. then, the came in for a circus style lunch of corndogs, popcorn, peanuts and fruit punch. Not terribly balanced, but this was a birthday party after all!
We played Pin the Nose on the Clown
and then it was time for singing Happy Birthday and Cake! Thank goodness for BH&G party magazines! The big top circus cake was easy to duplicate even with all of the kids piled around trying to watch.
and finally we got to the presents:
from Leisha was a Barbie clipon coin purse shaped like a teddy bear and a bottle of perfume.
from her brother and sisters was a coloring book with all of her favorite NickJr shows- Dora, Backyardigans, and Blues Clues. Sarah loves to flip through the pages too ;)
from Mama and Daddy was a pair of Dora rollerskates with knee and elbow pads. She's never had a pair of her own rollerskates before, so she was excited! Daddy took her and Beth and Carissa out the park to try them out while Sarah finishes her nap.
we also gave her a Barbie Alina doll from the new Fairytopia movie.
Her cousins gave her a puppy in a purse. The puppy's name is Roxy.
and lastly, from Grandmama she got the new Barbie Fairytopia movie, Magic of the Rainbow
and the matching rainbow fairy costume.
Hopefully I can retire the Cowgirl costume she has been wearing constantly lately (and she wore during the party LOL) because it has a skirt that swirls out when she twirls around- influence of the 12 Dancing Princesses movie here. The cowgirl costume was getting tight on her and everytime I had to help her take it off I would wonder if the sleeve seams were going to rip LOL
So, happy birthday, Brenna! I hope your fourth year brings lots of wonderful things!

Calling all digicrafters!

If you love digicrafting, then you need to go check out these fabulous projects and templates I've found this morning while browsing blogs (yes, I know I should be working on that CT stuff I mentioned earlier.... LOL) I thought I would do some free craft enableing :)

Becky has a cute purse project and template on the GirlTalk blog

and Jenn Vogel is sharing a mini purse album project with template on the Studio Matters blog. Lots of great stuff on that blog this week! new products, coupons, and tons of fashion-inspired inspiration and projectst too! and while you are there make sure you check out the totally fabulous new collab kit by Krista and Jess, Bohemian peddler (there's a coupon for that too a little ways down!). Love love love Krista's creations and I got my CT invite- yeah!!! Krista and Jess are giving out addon freebies to Bohemian Peddler on their blogs this week, so don't miss those!

Don't miss out!

Dani is trying something new on Friday! I've peeked in the bag, and it's worth it ;) And if you've been waiting to get some of her kits, this weekend is the time to stock up!

~~Whoosh~~~~

That was the sound of my Tuesday disappearing before I barely even knew it had arrived! The kids are on spring break this week and next, and I have been looking forward to being able to sleep in a bit in the mornings. I let Sarah dictate when I get up on these days, well she didn't get up until noon yesterday so neither did I! I got up for a minute or 2 a couple of times to mediate in some fighting going on downstairs after DH left for work, but since Sarah was still asleep I just went back to bed each time. I was a bit shocked to crack my eyes open and see that the clock said it was almost 12 and Sarah still wasn't up. I pried myself out of bed and went and woke Sarah up too. After feeding myself and everyone lunch and spending a few minutes (OK, it was more like an hour) reading a book, we made our weekly trip to the library. Then, it was time to make dinner and clean up. Finally after dinner I got to sit down and check email and finish up a couple of LOs I had started working on the day before. It was an incredibly busy weekend and I guess we were just both worn out! Sarah has a runny nose and sounds a bit congested too, so she is a bit sick as well and I'm sure that contributed to her needing some extra rest. Not having adjusted to the time change yet isn't helping either.

Saturday was a day of running from one thing to the next. I took the girls to dance in the morning, and then got a few hours at home to clean up a bit and scrap a bit. Mid-afternoon I went to a friends' wedding. Anna and Daryl actually got married two years ago in a civil ceremony at the courthouse when Daryl was home in between deployments to Iraq (he has been on two deployments to Iraq so far, one 9 months and one 1 year long). Anna had always planned to have a church ceremony with all of the trimmings on their first anniversary, but the second deployment came sooner than expected and that didn't work out. Well, finally they were able to have the wedding. It was wonderful and beautiful and everything a wedding should be.
Have you ever seen a streth Hummer before? perfect for an Army wedding! :)
Congrats to you Anna! I was so glad to be able to be there to help you celebrate.
I had to eat and run from the reception to meet my family to attend the Disney on Ice Monsters, Inc. show. That was fun. I honestly don't know how the people wore all of the elaborate costumes, stayed upright, and didn't run into each other! Sarah didn't care too much for the monsters part of the show as I don't think she had seen the movie before that afternoon, but she loved seeing Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald, and Goofy come out at the beginning, middle and end. I took soooo many pictures again this year. I put together a LO with some of the best.

(Click on the pic to see it larger)
credits and journaling can be seen HERE

and I will finish up with showing off the other CT LOs that I got done this weekend in no particular order. I really did get a lot accomplished!

credits and journaling can be seen HERE

credits and journaling can be seen HERE

Tracy let me know that Bren Boone was starting guest CT spots in April, so I jumped right on that call and was accepted. This is my first LO with her designs- love the bright colors and textures on these papers, and I think the clothespin element is just too cute! I also used some of Mish's cute elements too :)

credits and journaling can be seen HERE

This was my first full LO for the Sophia Sarducci CT- love their new Easter kit! It was perfect for these pics. (The Monsters, Inc LO above was my second LO for them)

credits and journaling can be seen HERE

This LO uses Audra's newest kit, Boys Will Be Boys. The colors are perfect for boys of all ages and the paper airplane element is so cute! I snapped this photo Saturday night at the ice show.

credits and journaling can be seen HERE

Can you believe that the twins were this small once upon a time? I pulled this photo out of the photo album to use with Jen's wonderful A Touch of Pink kit at Scrapdish. It was perfect- pink, but not overly so- to go with the girls in their pink outfits (those are preemie size they are wearing) and the teddy bears in the background.

credits and journaling can be seen HERE

I'm off to work on a few more CT tasks! Have a great Wednesday everyone!

All of this funkiness is keeping me busy!

Things have been soooo busy the last couple of weeks! My mom has decided to retire and move closer to both my sister and myself, so DH and I have been running around checking out condos and townhouses for her. We found something she thought would be perfect for her, and she came for a weekend visit to look it over. She ended up making an offer, and it was accepted the next day! So, now we get to take care of things related to its purchase and remodel for her since she won't actually be moving until sometime in the fall. All of this is reminding me of how much time and effort moving takes, and that is keeping me content to stay in our current house. I don't have any desire to move right now LOL!

I kept meaning to pop over here and post my LO from the week 3 Funk It Up contest and kept getting distracted. So, here it is along with a few others I've put together. I love the way this contest is stretching me in my scrapping style, but it sure does take a lot of time and effort. I'm enjoying it though.

I followed Krista's instructions she posted on her blog to create this photo collage for the week 3 challenge. We had to make a LO completing the phrase "One thing I know for sure...."

Credits/journaling can be seen HERE

The Bonus 4 challenge for this week was to use stamps or digital brushes on a project. I created this ATC using a few pieces from my Hearts Aglow kit I made last month, a stock photo from Stock Xchange and some brushes by Nancie Rowe Janitz and Christine Smith. This pic always makes me want to go to Starbucks LOL!

I joined a circle journal project with some of the other Dani's Girls and Shawna Clingerman's CT. My first LO had to be on the theme of my greatest fear. Here's what I put together for that. This was a LO I had wanted to do for a while, but it sure was hard to put those words down. I think the next LO I get to do is what makes me laugh- a bit happier theme will be a nice change.

credits/journaling can be seen HERE

and finally to a couple of LOs about Daddy for his book. I want to start printing these out and putting them in the album I bought so that the kids can look at them too. I used a sketch and Robin's latest kit for this LO with Daddy's high school graduation picture. I noticed he is wearing his National Honor Society pin in this photo when I looked closely at it; he gave it to me my junior year when I joined the NHS.

credits/journaling can be seen HERE

I spent about a week and a half on this timeline of all of the places that Daddy lived. It was neat to hear more about his childhood home from Uncle Ralph and Aunt Sheryl and tidbits about some of the other houses from my mom (thanks to all of you for helping with this!). I haven't spent that much time on a LO in a long time, but I love the way it finally turned out!

credits can be seen HERE

(click the picture to see a bigger version!)

A bit of sad and happy CT news.... Robin has decided to close her shop at Scrapdish. :( So, I won't officially be on her CT anymore- boohoo! I've always loved her kits for their clean, classic style. It's a good thing I have lots of her designs in my stash to pull from; I know I will be going back to them over and over. She will still be at RAKs, so hopefully there will still be new things every once in a while to play with.

and you know the saying about one door closing and another opening? well, in this case it was two! I have been invited to join the CT at SophiaSarducci and for Kim Jensen! The heritage style kits at SophiaSarducci are totally amazing and will be perfect for lots of the photos I brought home in January that still need to be scrapped. They have some great funky style elements in the store too! I've always loved Kim's kits and unique elements, so I am thrilled she asked me to join her new CT! I'm looking forward to working with you :)

and with that I need to get busy and get to work! I've got lots of CT things to take care of!

My Scrap Corner and some more FUNKiness!

Where did the week go?? Here's what I did a couple of days ago for Jess Bolton's blog challenge on scrapping your scrapping space (heehee!) I went with the 'scrap' theme and used bits and pieces from a bunch of stuff I've got on my HD and hadn't used yet.

journaling: This is my corner, where I sit and scrap the hours away. I sometimes have to share and move to the table, but most of the time it is all mine. It’s my favorite spot in the whole house.

credits: Bren Taylor Boone: Lil Something blog freebie; Sandra Boddington: blue paper from click a sig freebie, and pink floral paper from Oh So Sweet paper pack; Cindy Wyckoff: cream paper from Studio6 paper pack; Corina Nielson: folded ribbon; Christina Renee: striped shabby ribbon; flowers by: Cristina Renee, Amanda Rockwell, Christy Lyle, Dani Mostad, and Bren Taylor Boone; flower sticker from Oh So Sassy by Mindy Terasawa; Rubon Action by Atomic Cupcake; notepaper from A Touch of Pink by Jen Reed at Scrapdish; stitching by Dani Mogstad from Spring Chick; Shabby Frame by Amanda Roberts; Click-a-Sig LO sketch by Suzy Nunes
alphas: S- Circus Days blog freebie by Jessica Bolton; C- mini button alpha by Eve Recinella; R- Coffee Talk alpha by Mish Gasser at PlainDigitalWrapper; A- Rainy Days and MOndays alpha by Dani Mogstad; P- green glitter alpha by Meredith Fenwick; handstamped alpha by Michelle Coleman; fonts: FG Gabriella

and the voting is done for the second challenge in the Funk It Up contest, so I can share my entry from last week now. I'm not sure where exactly this one came from, but it was fun! LOL We had to make a LO finishing the phrase "Someday I'm going to...." I call this one 'Someday Science'

journaling: Someday I am going to find a use for the graduate science degree that I spent so many years earning. Right now my family needs me at home more than I need to work. By the time I actually do start looking for a job, I am sure my science skills will be so badly out of date that some creativity in job hunting will be in order. The right opportunity will present itself when it is supposed to.
credits: papers by Michelle Coleman, Linda GilBildal, and Lisa Whitney from the Wintersong kit at Scrapartist.com used to create the background, science brushes from Toastsnatcher.com, Polaroid frame alpha by Amanda Lacey (mandabean) at SweetShoppeDesigns; Fun felt circles by Amy Martin at Scrapbookbytes.com; flowers and heart brads from Crazy Love kit by Dani Mogstad at DesignbyDani.com ; fonts: FG Freja (and SBC jazzed)

I've got my challenge 3 entry done and sent in- you'll just have to wait to see that next week ;)
It seems like I'm in a perpetual state of feeling like I am behind lately. It's not that I really am, as I still seem to be able to get things done before or when they are due, but I don't have as much 'flex time' as I would like. It seems like I am constantly running around trying to keep the kids out of trouble instead of being able to sit for any length of time and get things done. Sarah seems to have radar to every pencil, marker and crayon that the older kids leave anywhere within reaching distance of her little hands. My walls, kitchen floor and funiture need some clean up work. I'm off to try and eat lunch! have a great day everyone!

Go Preston!

remember that Dive In! LO I did last week? Check this out:
He qualified in 3 events: one and three meter board and platform. Nationals are next weekend and Kat and Preston's younger brother (who is also diving - I haven't scrapped his pics yet) will be jetting off to Minneapolis to cheer him on. WTG Preston!

Digicraft Chat March 6 at RAKscraps

So close, yet so far away

and so the saga of trying to find a shamrock shake continues.... I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinners this week. There is a McDs right across the intersection, but I didn't really want to go inside and sit and eat lunch. I chose the drive-through instead. I pulled up and aksed if they had shamrock shakes- she said yes, so I ordered one and a happy meal for the kids to share. I picked up the food and we drove home. I stuck the shake in the freezer for enjoying after lunch was over. We ate and I finally got my treat out to enjoy- I take the top off the cup and find a PINK milkshake instead of a green one ::sigh:: the guy had given me a strawberry one instead. Maybe the gal taking the order didn't understand what I said, or maybe they don't really have the shamrock shakes at this restaraunt. I don't know since we didn't go inside; I guess if I try again that is what I will have to do. We went ahead and enjoyed the strawberry shake- haven't had one of those in a long time either- because it wasn't worth the trouble to take it back and they would just throw it away, but it wasn't really what I wanted. I swear trying to find the minty green shakes is like the elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow every year.

Attitude and Bellybutton Love

In keeping with the March green thing, here's a green LO I created for the 2nd bonus challenge in the Funk It Up contest (here's a link to where it is just for you Kim: forum and gallery).

journaling: Brenna can be one sassy child when she doesn’t get her way- throwing a tantrum like no other person in our family. When she is in a good mood, she can be the sweetest child on the planet though. That’s our Brenna. -picture taken August 10, 2006
credits: all elements by Dani Mogstad: from Bewitched: background paper, alpha, glitter frames, glass star, stitching, and green mesh; Crazy Love: heart patterned paper, pink stitched heart and heart brads; Hard @ Play: green floral paper; green felt circle from Handstitched alpha; Creative Crops shapes; Scraplift of Angie's (chic_mama) 'Sweet Beth' LO at DST; fonts: CK script

and a LO I did for Holly McCaig's popbytes contest on her blog. I think it turned out cute- love the bright colors and fun elements on this- perfect for pics of 2 little girls having a good time laughing with each other.

journaling: I heard the best giggles coming from the kitchen after dinner and had to go find out what was happening- Sarah was poking Brenna’s belly button and Brenna was giggling saying that it tickled. Sarah thought that it was the funniest thing and kept doing it over and over, giggling right along with her.
credits: by Holly McCaig: Popbytes Contest kit, Love popbyte, jumpring and tag from Shabby Meadows kit; scalloped photo mat by myself
fonts: SF Happiness and 2Peas Hot Chocolate

The only other LO I've done since I last posted here I can't show you quite yet because it was for the second Funk It Up challenge. Let's just say that this one makes my first funky LO look tame! LOL I'll post it in a couple of days for you after the voting is over. I'm not quite sure where this all is coming from, but it is kind of fun to explore ;)

Oh the disappointment!!

Oh the minty goodness! I can taste it now..... and I was SSOOOOOO close to actually getting one when we went to lunch at McDs yesterday after dropping off the twins at a birthday party for their good friend Caitlin (Becky outdid herself on the cake and minicakes again this year!). I was in charge of ordering and while I was standing there pondering how much food we were going to need since we were 2 kids short this trip, I saw the Shamrock Shake sign up on the board! I ordered a large with all of the other food since I figured I was going to have to share. I paid and was waiting for it all to be served up when the gal called me back over and started apologizing for not remembering that the shake machine was not working and that the guy called in to fix it earlier had just made it worse. So, no shamrock shake for me yesterday :( I guess I will just have to take Brenna and Sarah out sometime this week for lunch.

In honor of my favorite St. Patty's treat I decided to make it my green avatar at RAKscraps this month and while out searching for an image, I came across a wonderful page in celebration of the minty goodness by Mystie. Not only did she have several images of the shake, but she found a commercial from 1979 featuring Grimace's Irish uncle, Uncle O'Grimacey, who is out painting everything green in honor of the return of the Shamrock Shake. What a blast from the past LOL! If you want to go check it out yourself, you can find her page HERE.
You will need RealPlayer to view the commercial- you can get a free version of that here.

and if you can't find a McD's in your area serving up this once a year treat, then you can make a clone at home. You can find a recipe to whip one up here.

I'm funky!

The first challenge of the Funk It Up! contest at Scrapforums.com is done and I can show you my LO. I'd been wanting to do this LO since before we left Spokane, so it was nice to have some motivation to actually sit down and do it. We had to scrap a line from the song "Photographs" by Nickleback. I'd never heard it before, and can't say I will probably ever listen to it again, but it did have lots of different types of 'themes' you could choose to use in it. journaling: “Remember the old arcade, blew every dollar that we ever made...”

Well, I didn’t blow my money at the arcade like a few people I knew, but I certainly wasted the equivalent of many days in front of the television in our basement family room mesmerized by video games. My favorite games were Smurf, Donkey Kong Jr. and Ladybug of the 10 we owned. I shouldn’t have been surprised, probably even expected it, to find the old Colecovision carefully packed up in its box and sitting on a shelf in my Dad’s office when we started going through it a few days after he passed away. Given the lack of child-focused entertainment opportunities during this trip, we decided it would be a good idea to indulge them with video games. Mark hooked it up to an old TV, also removed from the office, and all of the kids began to while away the hours of the day honing their skills at jumping barriers and rescuing Smurfette, eating dots, shooting up space ships and alien invaders, and changing the colors on the tops of pyramid blocks. I quickly remembered just how annoying the repeated strains of the tinny music could be, but I was grateful that my Dad had saved the old video game for us to occupy the kids with while we planned his memorial service. It was carefully packed up once again before we left to await our next trip to Spokane- a special treat to be enjoyed during visits to see Grandmama and remember Grandaddy by.
credits: Techno Grunge by Shawna Clingerman; Stitching Scribbles Circles by Kim Christensen at Scrapartist; Punchlabel alpha by Leah Riordan at Oscraps; Rubon action by Atomic Cupcake
fonts: vintage Typewriter and SF Happiness

(click on the LO to see it much bigger!)
I'm really pleased with how it all came out- very funky indeed and pretty much like I was picturing it in my head! I came out of the first round with quite a few points, which is pleasing and scary at the same time LOL I dont' think I could have done a contest like this a year ago, I've learned a lot about PSE and feel more free to sit and play with things now to come up with a new look.

Sarah finally has fallen asleep, so I am off to try and get a start on the second challenge. Talk to 'ya later!

A better week

So, Sarah threw up all over the floor about 10:30 Sunday night, making that the third time in a week. I called the doctor first thing Monday morning and heard the usual "she has a virus of some sort, there are lots of things going around" That's the strangest virus we've had around here because other than the throwing up and some diarrhea (which we deal with regularly anyway for Sarah) she showed no signs at all of being sick- no fever, no loss of appetite, no sleeplessness or being overly cranky. Oh well, I would rather be certain that nothing awful was going on. She hasn't thrown up again and the diahrrea seems to be under control again.

Brenna has been doing better with using the toilet this week. She's still a long way from being out of the Pullups, but at least she has been using the toilet again instead of the total avoidance she was doing last week.

I've been scrapping lots- of course! :D
The "In Memory" mini-album challenge I'm running over at RAKs started on Sunday and I've done several LOs for the first week's topic of the person's childhood.

credits can be seen HERE

credits can be seen HERE

credits can be seen HERE

It's March 1 and Dani's newest kits are available, so I can show off what I've been doing with those now. this first one is with a kit called Sk8r Girl, one of the winners in her snapshots photo contest last summer. I borrowed some pics from my friend of her DS diving to do this LO with. Even though the theme of the kit leans more towards girls, there are still plenty of cool gender neutral elements to use for boys too.credits can be seen HERE

and here is my digicraft I made for the month to use with the new kits. I haven't done a LO with the second kit- Rainy Days and Mondays (papers and elements)- yet, but you can see a bit of it on the CD envelope I put together.

credits can be seen HERE

We're changing up the altered entries on the GirlTalk blog a bit to spread them out a bit more since people are saying that they really love the altered projects we've been doing. One of us will post a project on Tuesdays and every once in a while we might pop in with a surprise entry if we have something we can't wait to share.

and one last LO I did late last night with the current cookie template over at the SweetShoppe based on one of the fabulous LOs by Karen Wong. I, of course, had to change it up a bit so that I could make it a two pager and fit more photos on it. I just loved this part of the COSI science center and I think the pictures came out really neat.

credits and journaling can be seen HERE